How fans affect football - Preview

HOW FANS AFFECT FOOTBALL research papers from supporters direct scotland

about the authors Andrew Jenkin Andrew is Project Manager at Supporters Direct Scotland. He has a BA Honours in Journalism and an MSc in Sport Management, both from the University of Stirling.

He wrote his MSc dissertation the segmentation of perceptions of the alcohol ban in Scottish football. In 2011 he co-founded Africa on the Ball, a Scottish charity which uses football for community development in deprived areas of Africa. You can follow him on Twitter @andrewjenkin

graeme taylor Graeme is a two-time graduate from the University of Stirling, with a BA (Hons) in Sport Studies and a MSc in Sport Management. His MSc Dissertation examined the sporting and financial effectiveness of a professional football club’s Youth Academy, and received a share of the University of Stirling Dissertation Prize. He currently works as a Market Research Specialist for Sporting Chance Initiative, and volunteers as a Research Officer for Supporters Direct Scotland and Falkirk Football Club. You can follow him on Twitter @GraTaylor54.

kevin mccluskie Kevin is a two-time graduate of the University of Stirling having achieved a BA (Hons) in Business Law before completing an MSc in Sport Management. He has recently completed a short-term position as a Data Analyst with the Scottish Football Association reporting on participation levels of CashBack funded projects since 2008/09. Kevin also holds a voluntary position with Livingston FC and is looking to forge a career within the football industry.

jo welford Jo Welford is a Research Associate at Loughborough University, working on the FREE (Football Research in an Enlarged Europe) project, investigating what football means to fans across the continent. She has a BSc and PhD in Sports Science from Loughborough University.

Her research interests include football supporters, football governance, and the experiences of minority groups (particularly disabled supporters) within these. She also writes about women’s football, and has previously worked in criminology. Twitter @jwelf, and follow the FREE project @FREE_project_eu.

blair condie Blair is due to graduate next month with a BA Honours degree in Journalism and Sports from the University of Stirling. His dissertation was on Old Firm footballers and their use of Twitter, specifically fan interaction and media events. He has worked with Supporters Direct Scotland for around one year, as well as working with The Daily Mail and several other football websites. You can follow hm on Twitter @bcondie92.

foreword

contents future of fan ownership 2 safe standing 3 social media 4 Financial transparency report 6 the alcohol ban 7 tv impact upon attendances 9 summer football 10 segmentation of fans 11 disability access 11 jo welfare’s research 12 womens football 12

future of fan ownership by andrew jenkin

In 2010, Stirling Albion became Scotland’s first league to become 100% owned by its supporters.

Three years on and the number of clubs under community ownership has risen to four, and research from Supporters Direct Scotland (the umbrella organisation concerned with the growth of the ownership model) predicts a further four clubs could follow suit in the next twelve months.

Traditionally, Scottish football clubs have been owned by business people (often referred to as the Single Benefactor Model), but it is argued by Professor Stephen Morrow in a lecture entitled ‘The Future of the Game in Scotland’ that clubs must lose the tag of being a ‘business’ before their true value is recognised. Alternative ownership models such as Stirling Albion’s are suggested as offering a more sustainable future with clubs such as Rangers, Hearts and Dunfermline having all encountered severe financial difficulties under the single benefactor models in recent years.

The main purpose of this research was twofold: • To gain a greater understanding of the fan and community ownership model and its benefits • And to gain a greater understanding of the reasons for the growth of the model within a Scottish context In this instance, qualitative research methods are preferred as it allows a different level of insight into the relatively small cases of community ownership within Scotland. It also enables a greater

level of understanding of the factors which led to its emergence in specific examples.

Four willing interviewees with interest and knowledge of the subject matter and who could approach it from different perspectives were identified and are as follows: - Paul Goodwin (Head of Supporters Direct Scotland) - Eddie Docherty (Former Chairman of Stirling Albion Supporters Trust) - Professor Stephen Morrow (Senior University of Stirling Lecturer and Author of The People’s Game?: Football, Finance and Society) - Neil Bone (Chairman of Supporters Direct Scotland Council and Interim Chair of the Honest Men Trust) An interview schedule was drawn up for all interviewees with the purpose of exploring each participant’s thoughts and beliefs of the benefits of community ownership. It also sought to predict what future the model might have in Scotland. Each interview transcript was then analysed to identify key themes.

Analysis & Findings From the qualitative survey of interviewees, it emerged there were three key themes and examples of the benefits of the fan and community ownership model. Two key reasons for its growth were also evident: Benefits: - Financial sustainability and stability - Run for the benefit of the community - Democratic & transparent with fans represented Reasons for its growth:

- -

Economic climate Scottish culture and traditions

Benefits of the community ownership model The three key themes of the benefits of the community ownership model were mentioned and referred to in some way by each interviewee highlighting the fact interviewees believe the model is more than an ideal, but has tangible benefits to a range of stakeholders.

Sustainability and Stability Perhaps the most prominent theme throughout the interviews was the sustainability fan ownership can bring football clubs. Stability was referred to in both a social and economic context.

This was pinpointed by each interviewee with the financial uncertainty single owners can cause emphasised.

Mr Docherty, speaking anecdotally about the situation at Stirling Albion prior to the fan takeover in 2010 said, “Mr McKenzie (former Chairman of Stirling Albion) invested a lot of his own money into the club and he ran it with his heart rather than his head”.

Mr Docherty cited stability as a benefit which generated social value. In his instance, the existence of his club had been a result of fans involvement in a democratic ownership structure and believes “the only other option was to let the club die”.

This benefit is reaffirmed by Professor Stephen Morrow who states community ownership “takes away some of the risks associated with other people coming in with different objectives”.

Later in the interview he said community ownership “encouraged sustainability” because of the obligation those groups have to their respective

communities.

Despite the perceived financial stability and advantages community ownership provides, the issue of finance was also referred to throughout the interviews as one of the model’s major drawbacks. Mr Docherty was able to reference the difficulties Stirling Albion Supporters Trust had in raising sufficient capital to purchase the club whilst Paul Goodwin and Professor Morrow also commented on a lack of access to funds being a major hindrance.

Democracy, Transparency and Representation The benefits of democratically controlled clubs are apparently shared among all interviewees with the terms democracy, transparency and representation all referred to in positive contexts and advantages of the fan ownership model.

All interviewees talked of the importance of fan representation and democracy within decision making. Mr Goodwin stated emphatically that fan were “super loyal customers and deserved to be represented” and that the benefits of fan ownership were “widespread and include presenting fans and getting their views heard”.

However, it should also be noted that the element of democracy was cited by two interviewees as a disadvantage to the ownership model.

It was believed by both Professor Morrow and Mr Bone that the model prevented quick and streamlined decision making. Professor Morrow summarises its difficulties by stating there were “risks of slow decision making; political influences and factionalisation; democracy!”

Run for the benefit of the community Maintaining and developing links within the community was also something stressed as a benefit of community owned clubs. It was evident that all interviewees believed that clubs were more than the team fielded on a Saturday afternoon but social institutions that should be embedded within their respective communities. Mr Bone was of the opinion that clubs should be “not just run for shareholders but run for the benefit of their communities”.

Reasons for its Growth Each individual interviewed believed the number of clubs under the model would grow in the future with two recurring reasons referred to.

Economic Climate Firstly, the economic recession and lack of alternative options for current club owners was heavily referenced.

The financial state of the game in Scotland is cited as problematic with purchasing clubs undesirable and supporters being the only option for many of them.

Mr Goodwin shared his thoughts by believing “they (Chairmen) want out and I think in the past, in most cases, they would have sold their shareholdings to someone else, but the reality is most of these shares are worthless”.

Mr Docherty was able to contextualise the situation by stating “go into any shopping centre and you’ll see shutters down and closing down sign and football is in the same situation. The clubs are dying off and must stand on their own two feet. The only option I can see is the fans themselves”.

Within responses there was some

overlap between the theme of the economic problems and the cooperative movement within Scotland.

Scottish culture and traditions/ Growth of Cooperative movements Whilst there are perceived benefits of community ownership of football clubs, analysis of interviewee responses revealed there was an underlying belief sport institutions such as football clubs should belong to their communities out of principle, particularly within Scotland. This was referred to by Professor Morrow who said community ownership was “the right thing to do to and it seems to fit with the traditional political and economic models that many Scots are familiar and comfortable with”. He later added “community and corporate ownership of society has a strong tradition in Scotland, so I think that might be seen to have an impact”.

Mr Goodwin said the model was part of the “whole cooperative movement which is really positive and strong and more and more, certainly in the last 5 or 6 years since the recession, we’ve seen a lot more focus on things like social enterprise and I think this is just taking this type of collective responsibility into the world of football” Mr Goodwin was able to cite both major shareholders at Ayr United and Motherwell FC as examples of clubs who have expressed desires to explore the community ownership route to pass their share holdings onto by stating “who better to pass it on to than the fans who are the constant of any football club?”, connoting there was something good and pure about the ideals of community ownership.

Conclusion

Whilst qualitative research has shown there is a consensus on the benefits, there is also general agreement on the drawbacks of the unique features of community ownership. It is noticeable that some of the benefits are later highlighted as disadvantages in practice and some responses often contradicted each other, which implies interviewees were often caught between the ideals and pragmatism of the model.

However, importantly, all interviewees stated that these drawbacks were outweighed by the positives of having a broader, community based ownership model which involved democratic processes and were focused on delivering benefits to the wider community rather than shareholders.

safe standing by richard foy

Introduction The topic of safe standing sections is important as it is a major discussion point in today’s football world.

There have been increasing calls for standing sections to be reintroduced into British football, from organisations such as the Football Supporters Federation. Slater (2007) shows how a poll conducted by the Football Fans Census (FFC) states that “92% of English football fans want clubs to bring back safe standing sections”. The Independent (2011) highlights how in Scotland, recent calls for the introduction of safe standing areas have led to a change in policy. The Independent (2011) shows how the SPFL have relaxed their rules on standing following pressure from Scottish football fans. Slater (2007) notes that major concerns over ticket prices, an ageing crowd demographic and falling attendances, have increased pressure on the authorities to re-examine the all-seater requirement. Conn (2005) illustrates that it is felt that increased ticket prices within all seater stadiums have priced many football fans out of the game and are contributing to falling attendances.

History of Safe Standing The Hillsborough Stadium Disaster Enquiry Report (1990) is a key policy, and the effects can still be witnessed throughout UK football today. The most important recommendation made in the report that is still evident today was that football stadiums in the top divisions in England should be all seated; something which Scotland decided to use as advice and copy around the same time as it was made mandatory in England.

Conn (2012), states that seating

has never actually been compulsory in Scottish football. All seated stadiums have arguably reduced the level of football hooliganism and increased the overall level of safety within football in the UK. Taylor (1989, pp 12), shows this by stating that “when a spectator is seated he has his own small piece of territory in which he can feel secure”. Taylor (1989) also shows that with seated fans there is less likely to be crushing or swaying movements in the ground which results in accidents less likely to happen. Modern technology has also ensured an increase in fan safety. By knowing the capacity limits of stadiums, clubs and police can ensure that grounds are not over crowded. Women, children and families can now go to games and enjoy the visual aspect of football without their viewing being disrupted by larger supporters; this is something which has had an impact on fan demographics.

Taylor (1989) shows how more comfortable seats have attracted an increasing level of women and children to football matches.

Frosdick & Marsh (2005), show that the reduction in crowd trouble and, more importantly football hooliganism is also linked to the new all-seater stadiums.

The Taylor Report (1989) was seen to have a more sensitive understanding of hooliganism and as to why people were involved in hooliganism. Frosdick & Marsh (2005) also explain how all-seater stadia and improved stadium facilities allowed more families to go to football matches and feel safer than they could before. Reilly (1996) argues that since Hillsborough there has been a downward spiral with football hooliganism, with even those who were unsure whether the hooligans were trou-

ble or not, now changing their attitude and deeming hooliganism as unacceptable behaviour. In 1989, at the FA Cup semi – final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest, BBC News (1989) shows how one of Britain’s greatest football disaster occurred. The match took place at a neutral venue, Hillsborough, the home ground of Sheffield Wednesday. BBC News (1989), states that a “crush resulted from too many Liverpool fans being allowed in to the back of an already full stand at the Leppings Lane end of the ground” which resulted in the death of ninety-six football fans. Although the HSDER (1989) highlighted changes which needed to be made to provide football stadiums with a significant level of health & safety, many clubs found it difficult to comply with these recommendations due to the economics of conversion to all seated stadiums. Conn (2005) makes the point that larger clubs such as Arsenal and Manchester United raised the finance from supporters to fund the upgrade of their stadiums.

Manchester United floated on the stock exchange in 1991 to fund the refurbishment of the Stretford End of the stadium and raised £10m.

Fans who gave money to the club were allowed a shareholding and a stake within Manchester United however Conn (2005) shows how Arsenal fans were treated differently. Conn (2005) states that Arsenal had aimed to raise £16.5m to fund the refurbishment of their ‘North Bank’ however they hoped to raise the finance by simply taking from their fans. Bigger clubs were able to produce schemes such as these as they ultimately have a wider fan base than other clubs; however not all clubs could attract investment in this way and struggled to afford the cost of stadium upgrades of tens of millions.

The Situation Today Since 2007 there have been increasing calls for safe standing sections to be introduced in both Scottish and English top flight games. There are many campaigns and opinion polls suggesting safe standing sections should be introduced in British football stadiums, however since 2006 the Football Supporters’ Federation (FSF) have campaigned for many things with one of their main campaigns being the introduction of safe standing areas in British football grounds.

Conn (2012), states that German football has pioneered the way forward for safe standing sections with almost every high profile stadium containing a safe standing section. The Stadium Guide (2012) shows how Borrusia Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion boasts a capacity of 80,720 with 25,000 of these for standing places.

Tickets for the seated area range from €28 - €49 with a ticket for the standing area under €15. These safe standing sections can be transformed into reduced capacity seated areas if the teams who occupy them are playing in a European competition as UEFA require grounds to be all seated to compete in European tournaments; however McDermott (2011) shows that safe standing sections comply with UEFA rules for domestic fixtures.

The Daily Record (2011) has gained mixed responses from SPFL clubs on the safe standing debate. The research highlights that clubs feel that the financial implications of installing safe standing sections to be a major stumbling block when considering the

move away from seated areas, to a safe standing section. As the campaign increases its intensity, the question regarding the authorisation of safe standing sections be allowed becomes more prevalent.

Conn (2012), states that the current situation in Scotland is also being matched in England with clubs such as Aston Villa, also exploring the possibility of a safe standing section. Conn (2012) shows how Villa’s Chief Executive, Paul Faulkner, recognises that safe standing areas could improve atmosphere at matches and allow for cheaper ticket prices within the stadium to attract younger supports currently priced out of football. There is understandably caution when the debate arises with the memories of both Heysel and Hillsborough still fresh in the mind of football fans however with the increase of health and safety and modern technology it could be argued that football is safer nowadays than in previous years.

Improved forms of policing football fans, as well as the increase of security technology such as CCTV, has also helped make football safer than it once was. The Daily Record (2011) also provides evidence from Scottish police chief Les Gray who insists that standing zones are dangerous and attracts troublemakers. Gray argues ‘that people go into a standing area because they want to misbehave’, something which all seater stadiums have eradicated. The research will aim to establish whether fans feel that the introduction of safe standing would encourage misbehaviour and decrease the level of safety at Scottish matches.

Conclusion In conclusion there are many pieces of literature that have aid-

ed the research. Many pieces of this literature review are current which shows that the topic of safe standing sections and whether they should be introduced into top flight Scottish football stadia or not is a very contemporary topic.

The literature shows how football has changed throughout the years and how fans have changed with it. With the actual football stadium modifying dramatically over the past twenty years it has allowed a pathway for businessmen, women and children to attend matches alongside the historically associated working class male. All seater stadia and improved facilities have made it more comfortable for the spectator which has increased the number of women and children attending matches, which some believe has led to the downfall of atmospheres at a number of Scottish football grounds. The calls for safe standing sections to be introduced into Scottish football are gradually increasing with the situation changing constantly. There is both evidence and arguments for and against the introduction of safe standing areas with many believing it is a question of whether to retain tradition, or remove it. With each week new information about the possibility of a return to terracing for many Scottish football fans is highlighted and this dissertation aims to seek the opinions and attitudes of Motherwell FC fans which will either support or oppose the argument. The literature review will be cross-tabulated with the research data to give an overall view on the opinions of fans for safe standing sections.

Results The initial results show that an overwhelming majority of fans are in favour of safe standing areas

at football grounds – over 90% in fact – and this further emphasises the need for a standing option as almost 49% of respondents said that they would attend games on a more regular basis if this was the case.

These results are echoed when the results of both questions are broken down. Of the 205 women which took part in the survey, a staggering 172 said that they would be in favour of a safe standing section, whilst only 27 were against the idea – 83.90% and 13.17% respectively.

The men who took part in the survey strengthen this opinion. A massive 91.23% of male respondents – 2658 in total – were in favour of safe standing at football stadiums

in Scotland and only 7.52% were in opposition to the proposal that safe standing could be brought back in to Scottish football.

Only 39 of the total respondents – 2863 – selected the “don’t know” option which was available, an extremely small number of participants, which shows that many people do have an opinion on this subject.

The call for safe standing areas within football stadiums can be further strengthened. When asked if they were more likely to attend football matches regularly if they had the option to stand, 48.79% of supporters said that they would be more likely to attend matches if they had the option to attend.

not. Both men and women were behind the proposal – 92.45% and 87.38% respectively – as a total of 2640 of the 2867 fans who answered this question voted yes.

Although fans believe that it would improve the atmosphere, voted in favour of small scale trials and wanted safe standing areas introduced, there was almost a split decision on the prospect of them being more likely to attend games if they had this option available to them.

References

Although this is a majority, there was a large percentage of votes which said they would not attend games regularly if there was a standing option. Surprisingly, 35.41% of respondents would not attend games regularly if there was a safe standing option, whilst 15.80% did not know how to answer.

49.56% of men who don’t attend games regularly just now would attend games regularly if they had an option to stand and 34.38% said that they would not. This second question relating to safe standing areas has divided opinions much further than what the initial question did.

Women are actually the opposite of what the results from Question 35 suggested. Only 37.29% of women who answered the ques-

tion said that they would be more inclined to go to games regularly if there was an option to stand, while 50.00% have said that they would not go to games regularly if the option was available to them.

The plot thickens upon further analysis of the results. 88.24% of fans believe that safe standing would improve the atmosphere within the stadium – both men and women support this, with 88.86% and 80.88% in belief of this respectively. Only 222 of the 2861 fans which answered this question said that they didn’t think that safe standing would improve the atmosphere.

The final question on the matter of safe standing related to small scale trials. A monumental 92.05% of fans were in favour of small scale trials, and only 6.32% were

BBC News, (1989), “1989: Football Fans Crushed at Hillsborough”, [INTERNET], Available from: < http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/ hi/dates/stories/april/15/newsid_2491000/2491 195.stm> Conn, D. (2005), “The Beautiful Game?: Searching For The Soul Of Football”, London, Yellow Jersey Press Conn, D. (2012), “Aston Villa exploring plan to bring in safe standing areas”, The Guardian, 19 January, 2012 Daily Record, (2011), “Standing Order”, Daily Record, 21 November, 2011 Frosdick, S. Marsh, P. (2005), “Football Hooliganism”, Devon, Willan Publishing The Independent, (2011), “SPL to pilot ‘safe standing’ areas”, The Independent, 19 December, 2011 Reilly, T. (1996), “Science & Soccer”, Spon Press, Taylor & Francis Group Slater, M. (2007), “Calls grow for return of terraces”, [INTERNET] Available from: < http://news.bbc. co.uk/sport1/hi/football/6444083. stm> The Stadium Guide, (2012),

“Present Stadiums”, [INTERNET], Available from: < http://www.stadiumguide.com/westfalenstadion/> Taylor, P. (1989), “The Hillsborough Stadium Disaster”, Final Report

SOCIAL MEDIA AND FOOTBALL CLUBS

by Andrew Jenkin

Introduction “In the past 24 hours there have been 4.7 billion minutes spent on Facebook, 53 million status updates and two million blog posts written. Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have given a voice to a generation that can dictate your brand’s reputation – whether it’s about poor customer service or a poor team performance – listening has never been more important” (FCBusiness, April 2012, Page 25) The internet is one of history’s greatest technological progressions and has altered the way the Western world communicates on a daily basis. However, even the internet itself has evolved during its relatively short lifespan.

While most websites were originally based around the broadcasting of information, the Internet’s most frequent use is now to share information via social networking platforms. Last year websites such as Facebook and Twitter became more popular than pornographic sites amongst UK Internet users for the first time ever (BBC, 2011).

The popularity of these sites has seen many organisations realise the potential to promote themselves to huge audiences via these platforms. This is exemplified by the fact that 43% of US businesses have an active Twitter account (Social Times, 2011).

Sport clubs are no different in this sense. Football teams are much more than groups of players, they are multimillion pound businesses and franchises competing to be the most successful both on and off the football pitch.

Digital strategist Alex Clough said “platforms such as Facebook and

Twitter have allowed a new generation of fans to connect with their football idols and teams in ways that they haven’t been able to within the modern game and clubs need to embrace this” (Goal.com, 2011).

In an interview for business related football news magazine FCBusiness, Liverpool FCTV’s Head of Content, Matt Owens, stated: “There is surely value in reducing the gap between our fans and the club they support and engagement via social media is one approach which could help to reach that objective” (FCBusiness, March 2011, pg 23).

This demonstrates a very proactive attitude towards the use of social media as a form of engagement with fans by Liverpool FC and treats them as people rather than consumers. But how many other clubs are embracing this attitude towards social media?

This research is concerned with investigating which clubs are interested and actively using social media as a vehicle for engaging with supporters. When this research was conducted in March 2012, the vast majority of professional football clubs in England and Scotland had official social media accounts. This shows the presence clubs have within the world of social networking and the importance placed on being visible via these platforms. However, whether clubs were using these accounts to connect with their supporters or to self promote was unproven.

This research is inspired by a hypothesis that football clubs may not be concerned with truly embracing the participatory nature of social media and choose not to engage

in two way conversations, instead preferring to simply broadcast information in a one-way mode of communication. The hypothesis continues that clubs may only exist within these networks as a means of marketing and a tool for broadcasting. If this were to prove true, it would consequently mean clubs are attempting to apply archaic means of broadcasting information in an age where two-way conversations are the normality. Broadcasting in this sense means promoting information in a one-way manner in which the audience is passive rather than encouraged to be active. It’s important that supporters are listened to on social media platforms as in the words of UFEA President Michel Platini “supporters are the lifeblood of professional football – they are the identity of the clubs. Owners, coaches and players change but supporters always remain.” (UEFA.com, 2009).

Like most businesses, clubs mainly rely upon their fans’ support, which in turn accounts for a large percentage of their overall annual turnover.

Former Celtic FC manager Jock Stein once said, “without fans who pay at the turnstile, football is nothing. Sometimes we are inclined to forget that”.

This has led to many clubs to turn to social media to reach the next generation of supporters to ensure their club’s sustainability.

However, with all the money surrounding professional football clubs in the modern day, many fans are beginning to feel disengaged with their clubs. Football forums such as ‘Footy Fans Down Under’, for example, are packed with posts from supporters criticising football clubs for their con-

tinued efforts to get more money from them (Fan Forum Highlights & Lowlights, FFDU.net).

In an interview with magazine FCBusiness, Dave Boyle, an expert on fan engagement, said: UEFA are saying clubs need to have a supporter liaison officer handling fan engagement. The parliamentary select committee report highlighted how much distance there is between fans and clubs saying clubs must do better (FCBusiness, December 2011, pg 28).

One question that arises from this is how are clubs using social media to narrow the gap? This is ultimately why this research matters.

Analysis The research was conducted by asking members of staff responsible for ‘tweeters’ at the clubs in the Scottish Premier League (2011/2012) to complete a survey.

The questions were designed to gather an insight into how clubs value and use social media and including:  How effective do you think Social Media is as a form of engagement with fans (between 1, being the least, 10 being the most)?  How much time does your club invest in social media on average per day (tweeting, replying to tweets, ‘Facebooking’)?  How much attention do you pay to suggestions, mentions and replies from fans on Social Networking sites? (1 being the least, 10 being the most)  Do you think fans of your club not involved with your official social networking accounts feel less engaged as a result of it?

Effectiveness of Social Media The results of the survey were interesting. Of the twelve teams in the Scottish Premier League, only three considered social media to hold the most potential as a form of engagement for fans. This demonstrates that some clubs (such as Rangers) believe social media is a valid and worthwhile tool for engaging with supporters regardless of motives to do so.

What this really means is that there are no agreements on how effective social media is as a form of engagement and different clubs have different views. This may go some way to explaining why some clubs have a particularly low ‘inter-

activity’ as they don’t value the potential social media holds as a key to connect with supporters.

It also shows that whatever the results and conclusions, it will simply be an average and there are no definite answers to clubs’ uses and views of social media as it varies considerably.

Time Spent Social Networking The time spent by clubs on social media platforms gives an indication into how important clubs deem social networking and how much time they’re willing to invest in it.

The more time spent networking indicates a highly value placed on social media and as of some sig-

nificance and worthwhile to the club.

These findings again show a large disparity between interest in social media or a sense of priority to it. However, these results may be dependent upon resources available to clubs. Some of the smaller clubs (clubs with a smaller fan base) may have limited resources financially and in regards to man power.

Attention to Social Media Finding out exactly how much attention clubs pay to the thoughts of supporter is really the crux of the investigation. The real matter concerning clubs uses of social media is to find out whether they are interested in engaging with supporters.

This in turn requires joining two way conversations with supporters. Clubs that value the thoughts of supporters are more likely to be effectively engaging with supporters through social media.

The findings make for interesting reading. Kilmarnock and St Johnstone stated didn’t value the thoughts of supporters as shown by the fact that on a scale of one to ten they scored 1 and 2 respectively. Clubs that claimed they valued supporter’s opinions the most were Celtic and Rangers.

The major trend that has emerged amongst the responses is there generally is a big difference between club’s perspectives and strategies regarding social media.

Whilst the bigger Scottish clubs with greater resources and fan bases such as Celtic and Rangers seem to embrace social media fully, the majority of the smaller clubs

seem to be reluctant to fully embrace it. This could be the result of a correlation between the size of clubs and their approach to social media which is researched further later.

As mentioned in the introduction, fans are vital to the sustainability of football clubs. Consequently, their views and opinions matter.

Paying attention to their thoughts and opinions via social networking sites is important as Platini says (pg 7) “supporters are the lifeblood of the club”.

Conclusion The main findings reveal the fact that whilst most clubs see value in social media as a tool to engage with fans, many football clubs aren’t using platforms and networks to listen to supporters and converse with them, consequently meaning the gap between supporter and club isn’t being narrowed via social media. Some clubs surveyed confessed to having little interest in what was being said by fans via these platforms which was interesting considering the importance supporter’s have in any football club’s future. It is these teams that appear to favour applying more traditional means of communications on platforms where human conversation is currency.

This is proven by the fact the majority of football clubs in the Scottish Premier League use a small percentage of tweets to interact with fans, instead preferring to use ‘plain tweets’ which tend to broadcast information rather than engage with supporters.

However, findings revealed when speaking to social media experts and football fans, that fans follow clubs for a number of reasons,

including information, therefore those that aren’t proactively networking are still of some value but don’t meet all criteria for preferred following. This would be achieved by using a balance of ‘broadcast’ tweets and significantly more ‘interactive’ tweets.

References Bradley, Mark, and Dave Boyle.

“Fan Engagement: Football’s Mindset Challenge.” Fcbusiness Magazine. FCBusiness Magazine, 2 Dec. 2011. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. <http://www.fcbusiness.co.uk/ eversion/issue57/fcb57/index. html>.

Walsh, Sean. “Premier League Social Media Stats.” FCBusiness 2 Apr. 2012: 25. Fcbusiness Magazine. FCBusiness Magazine, 2 Apr. 2012. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. <http://fcbusiness.co.uk/eversion/ fcb60/index.html>.

financial transparency by blair condie

This paper is going to detail financial information from all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs which were willing to participate in the study upon publication of their financial records at Companies House, or through direct communication with the club and the provision of the records provided by either the club directly or an attending member at that clubs Annual General Meeting(s), or AGMs. The paper looks to mainly increase the trust between fans of a football club and their clubs board; the people in charge of the club. This is looking directly at financial transparency between the club hierarchy and the fans who very rarely have a helping hand in how their club is being run, even though it is them who provide almost all of the commercial funds which are needed to run a football club, whether this be in the form of season tickets, gate receipts, television subscriptions, advertisement target audience, almost all of the money which is pumped into the game relates back to the fans pockets.

The research was carried out over several weeks throughout December 2013 and January 2014, before the research was transmitted into a full paper. Almost all clubs submitted their full annual accounts to Companies House, where we at Supporters Direct Scotland, were able to obtain copies of the latest accounts submitted by each club. Of the 42 SPFL clubs, 38 club accounts were downloaded electronically from the website, with one club member providing a paper copy from their most recent AGM, and two clubs unwilling to disclose the information for reasons out of our hands.

To avoid any corresponding actions by

clubs on its members for releasing the documents, the members who have helped with the study shall remain anonymous. After we obtained the information of each club account, we read through the documents, detailing which information was given, the depth of the information and how this was useful to the fans. Subsequently, the information we found in the documents was then compared between all clubs involved in the study and tables have been published to show a quick comparison of all clubs numerically, with detailed descriptions of the information found.

Individual Club Summaries Aberdeen For Aberdeen’s annual report ending June 2012, the Public Limited Company gave a full breakdown of their incoming and outgoing within a 26 page document. The document itself included the number of shares at the club, a breakdown of shareholders amounts, a financial review, several statements from independent audits as well as a detailed breakdown of the profits and losses within the club and where these are being made/ lost. Furthermore, there are notes on the document explaining some of the terms given beforehand. Finally the club give information on the number of staff members and each area that they are in at the club.

Airdrieonians Airdrieonians have produced a much less substantial document in their most recent accounts, the 2012 publication.

The club have produced their abbreviated accounts, which is an eight page document. There are very little notes or statements on the paper, with only

brief explanations of what the different types of assets mean. There is also a very brief summary of where money is spent and where money is being lost, but no detailed breakdown of how this is being retrieved.

Albion Rovers Albion Rovers’ most recent document is their year ending June 2013 accounts. Again, this is just an abbreviated account but does contain some statements from the independent auditors. The League Two side are similar to Airdrieonians in that a brief overview of their assets and liabilities are given as well as the cost and depreciation of the club and its assets.

All of this is presented in a seven page document.

Alloa Athletic The most recent document found for Alloa is the accounts published for the year ending May 2012. This document is almost the exact same as Albion Rover’s, with the exception of the figures given in each clubs account.

There is a page from the independent auditor confirming that the documents produced are suitable for submission.

Again, the Wasps have chosen to provide a brief overview of their assets and liabilities, including the cost and depreciation of these, all given within a seven page document.

Annan Athletic The document submitted by Annan for the year ending May 2013 is a very detailed piece of accounting. This document gives a full profit and loss breakdown of the clubs profits and losses, including specific figures of each area where money was being spent, e.g. awards, advertising, TV etc. As with the other clubs, an overview of the

responsibilities of each person on the board and the independent auditors have been noted.

Arbroath The League One side have produced a copy of their abbreviated accounts for the year ending May 2012. Once again, there is a statement from the independent auditor detailing sections of acts which the published documents comply with and their objective stance for reviewing the documents provided.

Similarly, only a brief overview of the assets and liabilities is provided, as well as the costs and depreciation values of some of the assets. This information is found within a seven page document.

Ayr United Ayr, although having a close affiliation with Supporters Direct Scotland, the fan ownership corporation, have elected to produce their abbreviated accounts, which is an eight page document for the year ending June 2012.

Once again there is a statement from the independent auditor detailing their objectivity as well as an overview of the assets and liabilities, including the cost and depreciation of some of these.

Berwick Rangers Berwick, listed as a Public Limited Company, have produced a 16 page document for the year ending May 2013. This publication gives several pages of statements and from directors and auditors. The accounts also contain a detailed cash flow, similar to Aberdeen’s own publication. The club also provide a cost and depreciation statement, including notes on party transactions, wherein transactions occurred through a third party affecting

the club.

Brechin City The club were unwilling to release the contents of their accounts as they are a club, not a company. After discussion with the club, it was noted that all members who attend the AGM are shown the details of the accounts, and season ticket holders are welcome at the meetings.

Celtic Celtic, although not listed as a PLC, have produced a substantial document detailing their accounts for the year ending June 2012. A 17 page report containing several pages of statements relating to the directors and the independent auditor(s). The account does not contain a cash flow statement, but does give a profit/loss account as well as further notes on what can be found inside. Finally, the report contains information relating to the cost and depreciation value of some of the clubâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s assets.

Clyde As is the case with most clubs in the lower divisions of Scottish football, Clyde (a Community Interest Club) have opted to produce their abbreviated accounts in the form of a 13 page report for the year ending June 2012.

Within this article, there is a substantial statement from the independent auditors as well as information on the CIC report. The account contains a brief report on the assets and liabilities and information relating to the cost and depreciation of assets.

Cowdenbeath For the year ending May 2012, Cowdenbeath have provided their abbreviated accounts in the form of a 10

page report. As with the others, there is a note from the independent auditor and several notes relating to the balance sheets. Once again, there is only a brief overview of the assets and liabilities, as well as information regarding the depreciation of assets.

Dumbarton Dumbarton have elected to provide a six page document for the year ending May 2012. Within this document, there is a statement from the auditor which details the responsibilities of directors. In terms of figures relating to the accounts, there is a brief overview of where money is being spent and what this is on. There is also some details given regarding the cost and depreciation of certain assets.

Dundee Dundee have chosen to produce their abbreviated accounts for the year ending July 2012. This report provides a statement from the auditors detailing what the current accounts read and what the upcoming seasons predictions for revenue are. There is also a brief overview of the assets and liabilities, as well as a small statement detailing the cost and depreciation of some of the assets within the 10 page report.

Dundee United What is interesting to note, is that Dundee United are listed as a Company, not a club like the football clubs mentioned previously. For the year ending June 2012, the company provided a 24 page document, including an extensive statement from the directors. In addition to this, there is also a statement from the auditor and the balance sheet and brief overview of finances. Crucially, a cash flow has

been submitted, including detailed notes explaining the accounts.

Dunfermline The club produced a 16 page document for the year ending May 2012, which was made up of the abbreviated accounts. The document also contained several pages of statements from directors and auditors, as well as several pages worth of notes regarding the financial statement and balance sheets of the club. These papers were produced when the club was undergoing the process of administration, and the debts causing this are shown at the end of the document.

East Fife East Fife have, like many other clubs, opted to produce their abbreviated accounts for the year ending May 2012 in the form of a seven page document.

There is a statement from the auditor, detailing his objective in reviewing the submitted material. There is also a note on the depreciation provided, however there is only a very brief note on the accounts themselves and the details of these are also very brief.

East Stirling For the year ending May 2012, East Stirling published their abbreviated accounts as a five page document.

Within the document, there is a short statement from the auditors, an abbreviated balance sheet and a brief note on the depreciation value of some assets at the club. Overall, this is a very short document with very little information available to the public.

Elgin Elgin have produced abbreviated accounts for the year ending May 2012 which takes the form of an eight page

document. Within the document there is a note from the auditors, several notes which relate to the financial statements and balance sheets as well as details of the clubâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s assets and liabilities. This also includes a short note on the current depreciation value of some of the assets.

Falkirk The document which we received for the year ending May 2013 was from a former member at Falkirk was a 5 page document which contained over a page statement from the director.

In addition to this, a group profit and loss statement and balance sheet was also provided, however no notes or depreciation values were to be found.

In addition to this, an earlier account was also provided which gave a more in depth overview of the accounts and notes detailing them.

Forfar In the six page document submitted by Forfar for the year ending May 2012 a statement from the auditors has been provided. In addition to this, there is an abbreviated balance sheet and notice of the clubs assets and liabilities, as well as a note on the clubs depreciation values of some of its assets.

Greenock Morton Greenock Morton have submitted an 11 page document for the year ending May 2012 which includes statements from the directors and auditors. In addition to this, the club provide detailed breakdowns of the profits and losses made within the club as well as information on the depreciation values of each asset. The values of each asset are also in place within the report.

Hamilton Academical

In perhaps one of the briefest documents submitted for the year ending June 2012, Hamilton have provided only a five page document, which in very short circumstances, seems to provide the absolute minimum of which they can provide for the fans.

There are no notes relating to board members, responsibilities of each of these and in the most basic of forms, the accounts have been shown.

Heart of Midlothian Again, a basic form of accountancy, perhaps even more so that the previous clubs. There is very little in the way of figures attributed to the clubs assets, as is the same for the liabilities.

As the club was undergoing financial difficulties in the public eye through the media, this may have contributed to the reason for publishing so little in their year ending July 2012 accounts.

Hibernian Unlike most other clubs in the survey, Hibernian submitted a copy of their year ending July 2013 accounts. In another comprehensive document, the club provide a lot of details on their profits and losses, as well as several notes suggesting why these may have happened. There are many extensive notes explaining some of the findings in the submitted material, overall a lot of information is available.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle For Invernessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; submitted documents for the year ending July 2012, the club have provided very little information on their accounting details. There is simply a figure next to a cost. In addition to this, there are limited notes on the material, detailing what each cost was, however there was a note on what is depreciating in value.

Kilmarnock In a different looking document to all that has preceded it, the annual accounts for Kilmarnock are very promising for the year ending May 2012. A full detailed profit and loss is provided, along with the cost and depreciation figures for some of the clubs assets.

In addition to this, there are extended notes from the directors and other members at the club. Once again, similarly to Hibernian, the document provides explanations as to why their figures have improved from the year before.

Livingston In a four page document for the year ending June 2012, Livingston have provided a cover page, a half page with an abbreviated balance sheet, a page and a half worth of statements and policies before a final page or so of asset costs and depreciation values. The document provided is amongst the worst found.

Montrose Montrose have submitted an eight page document for the year ending May 2012, but as with most clubs, it is an abbreviated account rather than a full detailed profit and loss one. Like most other clubs, there is a basic breakdown of where money is being spent and loss, but the bulk of the material is made up by statements and policies.

Motherwell A club which looks like it is on the way to being a fan owned club, Motherwell are already offering a lot of information to the fans in their annual accounts.

The 18 page document for the year ending May 2012 contains a lot of fig-

ures relating to the costs, profits and losses which the club is making, in addition to statements explaining these.

This document is precise in where money is being lost, staff numbers, amount of debtors, overall a comprehensive piece.

Partick Thistle The accounts submitted for the year ending May 2013 are abbreviated like many others. A large portion of the document is made up of statements and policies, with very brief information given on the actual figures where money is being lost and made. However, within the accounts submitted from year ending May 2012, the document is twice as long, containing more notes, more policies, but crucially, a detailed profit and loss account from the club.

Peterhead For the year ending May 2012, Peterhead submitted a copy of their abbreviated accounts. The eight page document had around three pages of statements and policies, which also includes concerns for the future and terms of their stadium lease. This is a valuable point to be noted as the document is limited in terms of figures where money is being made and lost.

Queen of the South Queen of the South have submitted a nine page document to companies house regarding their accounts. Just like many other clubs, these are the abbreviated accounts for the year ending May 2012. This submitted material is different from some of the others in that it seems to have an extended independent auditor report, stretching over 2 two pages while most others are shorter than one. Like all others,

there are three pages containing account details as well as cost and depreciation values.

Queens Park Queens Park have submitted a 25 page document, for their year ending December 2012. Unlike many others, there are meeting notes, a committee report and statement. Like the others, there is an independent auditor statement. There are 12 pages of the accounts which contain the actual accounts, hard numbers people can understand. Plenty of notes and cost/ depreciation values complete the accounts.

Raith Rovers The Championship side have, like many others, chosen to submit their abbreviated accounts. A seven page document for the year ending June 2012. As before, there is a page containing a statement from the independent auditors and a few pages with numbers that people can put a value to. The material is complete with cost/depreciation values and several finance notes.

Rangers The documents submitted by Rangers rank among the best found in this research. A 47 page document has been submitted, of which 21 pages contain account details for the year ending June 2013. This has statements from several directors and even the manager relating to the club. There are business accounts and statements as well as financial statements and notes. A lot of information can be found in these sections, relating to the previous season. This includes all aspects, from media to catering and even hospitality.

Ross County From one end of the spectrum to the other now. Ross County have submitted abbreviated accounts for the year ending June 2012. Three pages of the six page document contain numbers people can make sense of. The remaining pages are made up of financial statements, a contents page and a statement from the independent auditor. However, the document from 2006 has 15 pages and contains a lot more information that the latest document which was submitted.

St Johnstone St Johnstone have completed and submitted abbreviated accounts for the year ending May 2013. The seven page accounts have only two pages of accounts which are written in numbers.

Furthermore, there are a few pages of statements and notes, as well as the independent auditors statement. Like the others, there is cost/depreciation values.

St Mirren St Mirren have submitted a 21 page document for the year ending May 2012. This contains a directors report, chairmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s report and a statement from the independent auditors. Of the 21 pages, 11 of these contain figures which can be made sense of, as well as several financial notes. Finally, there are notes on the cost/depreciation of some of the clubs assets.

Stenhousemuir The League One side have submitted a 24 page document for the year ending May 2012. Unlike most of the lower ranked sides in the country, although these are termed as the abbreviated accounts. This is because

only three of these pages contain accounts. A large portion of this document contains a Community Interest Company Report, which is made up of notes relating to directors, dividends and assets amongst other things.

Stirling Albion The League Two side have submitted their abbreviated accounts for the year ending May 2013. The seven page document is made up largely of statements and notes. These include a contents page, independent auditor statement and financial notes. Only two pages of this account contain figures relating to the finances of the club.

Stranraer Over a period of 3 weeks, continuous emails and phone calls were made to the club directly using the information on their official club website, however no contact was successfully made.

Quick Comparison of Results Club

Detailed P/L or Abbreviated

No. of Pages

Aberdeen Airdrieonians Albion Rovers Alloa Athletic Annan Athletic Arbroath Ayr United Berwick Rangers Brechin City Celtic Clyde Cowdenbeath Dumbarton Dundee Dundee United Dunfermline East Fife East Stirling Elgin City Falkirk Forfar Greenock Morton Hamilton Heart of Midlothian Hibernian Inverness CT Kilmarnock Livingston Montrose Motherwell Partick Thistle Peterhead Queen of the South Queens Park Raith Rovers Rangers Ross County St Johnstone St Mirren Stenhousemuir Stirling Albion Stranraer

Detailed P/L Abbreviated Abbreviated Abbreviated Detailed P/L Abbreviated Abbreviated Detailed P/L N/A Detailed P/L Abbreviated Abbreviated Abbreviated Abbreviated Detailed P/L Detailed P/L Abbreviated Abbreviated Abbreviated Detailed P/L Abbreviated Detailed P/L Abbreviated Abbreviated Detailed P/L Abbreviated Detailed P/L Abbreviated Abbreviated Detailed P/L Abbreviated Abbreviated Abbreviated Detailed P/L Abbreviated Detailed P/L Abbreviated Abbreviated Detailed P/L Abbreviated Abbreviated N/A

26 8 7 10 14 7 8 16 N/A 17 13 10 6 10 24 16 7 5 8 5 6 11 5 6 19 7 27 4 8 18 8 8 9 25 7 47 6 7 21 24 7 N/A

N/A: club did not disclose information.

No pages detailing accounts 12 3 2 3 8 2 3 8 N/A 6 3 5 3 3 13 7 3 3 3 2 2 5 2 2 12 2 18 3 3 10 3 2 3 11 3 21 3 2 11 3 2 N/A

Club

Aberdeen Airdrieonians Albion Rovers Alloa Athletic Annan Athletic Arbroath Ayr United Berwick Rangers Brechin City Celtic Clyde Cowdenbeath Dumbarton Dundee Dundee United Dunfermline East Fife East Stirling Elgin City Falkirk Forfar Greenock Morton Hamilton Heart of Midlothian

No. of Shares and Breakdown

Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes

Chairman or Director statement

Chairman or Director signature

Business Review

Directors report

Auditors Report

Trading Profit and Loss

Full Balance Sheet

Cash flow statement

AGM Notice

Total (/10)

Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes

Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Yes No No No No No No No

Yes No No No Yes No No Yes

Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

No No No No Yes No No No

Yes No No No Yes No No Yes

Yes No No No No No No Yes

Yes No No No No No No No

9 2 3 3 6 3 3 7

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes

No No No No No No No No No No Yes No No

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

No No No No No No No No No No No No No

Yes No No No No Yes Yes No No No No No Yes

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes

No No No No No No No No No No No No No

Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes No No No Yes No Yes

No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No

No No No No No No No No No No No No No

0 5 3 4 3 3 6 5 3 3 3 3 3 5

Yes Yes

No No

No Yes

No No

No Yes

No No

No No

No Yes

No No

No No

1 4

Club

Hibernian Inverness Caledonian Thistle Kilmarnock Livingston Montrose Motherwell Partick Thistle Peterhead Queen of the South Queens Park Raith Rovers Rangers Ross County St Johnstone St Mirren Stenhousemuir Stirling Albion Stranraer Total (/40)*

No. of Shares and Breakdown

Chairman or Director statement

Chairman or Director signature

Business Review

Directors report

Auditors Report

Trading Profit and Loss

Full Balance Sheet

Cash flow statement

AGM Notice

Total (/10)

Yes No

No No

Yes No

Yes No

Yes No

Yes N/A

No No

Yes No

Yes No

No No

7 0 (/9)

Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Yes No No No No No No

Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes

No No No No No No No

Yes No No Yes Yes No No

Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes

No No No No Yes No No

Yes No No Yes Yes No No

Yes No No Yes No No No

No No No No No No No

7 0 1 6 5 3 3

No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

No No Yes No No Yes No No

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Yes No Yes No No No No No

Yes No Yes No No Yes No No

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

No No No No No No No No

Yes No Yes No No Yes No No

Yes No Yes No No Yes No No

Yes No No No No Yes No No

35

8

34

4

15

6**

2

17

8

3

7 3 8 3 3 8 3 3 0

N/A: Unaudited accounts provided. *as two of the SPFL clubs did not take part in the research, there remains only 40 of the 42 clubs to review. **This portion of the research was /39 as Inverness Caledonian Thistle state that it is their unaudited accounts.

the alcohol ban by andrew jenkin

Introduction This research, conducted in association with the Scottish Football Association (SFA), explores consumers’ perceptions of the alcohol ban, introduced as part of the Criminal Justice Act in 1980, preventing the consumption of alcohol at and en route to Scottish football games, and develops profiles of football supporters based on their receptiveness to the prospect of relaxing restrictions. This research proposes to fill a gap in knowledge regarding the understanding of the changing demographic of supporters; as gaining an understanding of consumer behaviours and attitudes is critical to influencing any potential alterations to legislation and a necessity for sport managers involved in the governance and marketing of sport across the country.

Prior to 1980 spectators were able to consume alcohol within stadia, however following outbreaks of violence among supporters during the 1980 Scottish Cup Final it was considered that “hooliganism was doing a great deal of harm to football” (McElhone Report 1977, p. 1.) and that this was leading to a decline in attendances.

The ensuing report concluded a strong relationship existed between alcohol and violence and attributed a ‘good deal of the disturbances’ to alcohol consumption before, during and after matches (McElhone Report 1977, p.

5). This led to the introduction of restrictions regarding the consumption of alcohol at football and rugby games in 1980, however the latter have been able to serve alcohol since 2007.

The decision to research perceptions of the ban was made in light of recent

requests to review the ban by senior public figures such as Peter Lawwell, chief executive of Celtic FC and Ruth Davidson, Scottish Conservative party leader. It is thought by some, including Ms Davidson, that a relaxation of restrictions may prevent attendances declining (McLaughin, 2009). Stating she believes the ban to be “out of date” (cited by Gilbride, 2013), Ms Davidson highlighted significant changes in the football environment since the ban was initially implemented and said: "I understand why the ban was brought in all those years ago, but times have changed significantly since then. We now have modern stadia with excellent stewarding to keep spectators safer, allowing more families to attend matches. This has resulted in the football watching experience being a far more civilised experience than it was 30 years ago” (cited by Archibald, 2013) Ms Davidson believes that a change in regulation could help clubs grow additional income. The most recent report into the finances of Scottish football by accountants BDO (2013) stated that financial “excesses of the last decade or so are still working their way through the Scottish football sector”, highlighting the importance of clubs being able to generate additional revenue streams. Similarly, it is thought a relaxation of restrictions may stop a diminishing atmosphere at fixtures across the country, an aspect of the football-going experience highlighted by former First Minister of Scotland Henry McLeish in his review and recommendations for the games’ reform; "we've got to change the atmosphere - that's the next big challenge for the game" (cited by BBC, 2013). At the

time of the ban’s introduction, it was thought crowd disorder was highly detrimental to crowd attendances and drove people away (Coalter, 1985, Ross, 2005); this was highlighted by Coalter: "Football hooliganism' must be regarded as the most popular and longest-running 'explanation' (for declines in attendances). Press coverage and popularly expressed fears tend to imply that football grounds are the sites of regular disorder that somehow football and "hooliganism' are synonymous” (1985, p. 115) The Scottish Government said in November 2013 that there were no plans to lift the ban, while similarly Police Scotland has said it opposed any relaxation of restrictions although no reasons were cited (Whittaker, 2013). The SFA have asked Scottish Government ministers to investigate ending the ban, and have called for a “serious and robust debate” on the issue (cited by Whitaker, 2013). Any debate requires information and insight and this has led to a need to examine and provide a current overview of the football attending demographic and assess consumer behaviours and attitudes towards the legislation.

Aims of research To date there has been no specific research into the ban’s benefits and disadvantages and whether in today’s society, considering the shift of landscape in Scottish football, it is more detrimental or beneficial to the game.

Therefore, this research will focus on assessing the attitudes and perceptions of consumers on the existing regulations to ascertain how opinions differ dependant on varying factors

such as age, gender, regularity of attendance at games and motives for attending fixtures. This is important as it is these consumers who will ultimately dictate demand for alcohol at games and as yet there has been no consultation with supporter bases on the matter.

Alcohol and Scottish Football Since 1980 Alcohol’s association with football stretches back to 1893, when an Anglican vicar commented that “football is a fascination of the devil and a twin sister of the drink system” with the two having a “mutually supportive” relationship in the 120 years since (Collins & Vamplew, 2002, p.

1). It has been considered that the activities of football and consuming alcohol have never existed entirely separately and their relationship has become increasingly intertwined, it has become clear that football offers the drinks industry a route to the lucrative market of young males (Collins and Vamplew, 2002). Their relationship became problematic in the 1970s when heavy consumption seeped into the match-going experience and led to anti-social behaviour and occasionally violence. In Scotland, despite the ban of alcohol consumption at and in transit to matches since 1980, issues of social disorder and alcohol consumption have continued. Giulianotti wrote ‘‘‘gett’n’ skittled affor the fitba’’ is an integral part of Scottish football (1991, p. 505) and more recently Millward (2009) cites his experience with Rangers fans at the 2008 UEFA Cup final by highlighting the fact the term ‘party’ invariably meant getting ‘drunk together’ to most supporters. This relationship has been taken to the point

where, for many fans, drinking and watching football tends to go ‘hand in hand’ and is an essential aspect of the match-day experience, with the alcohol infused ‘craic’ around games being as important to some consumers as the match itself (Townsend, 1997, Pearson and Sale, 2011).

The following section of this research will outline literature clearly identifying the benefits and disadvantages of restrictions upon alcohol consumption within football and more specifically the impact of the 1980 Act. Advantages of restrictions There is a strong argument across literature for the need of restrictions on alcohol consumption at sporting events due to a documented relationship with anti-social behaviour (Lipsey, 1997, Marsh and Kibby, 1992, Shepard, 1989). The 1977 Report of the Working Group on Football Crowd Behaviour concluded that: “Nearly all those who gave evidence were firmly of the view that a strong relationship exists between alcohol and violence and that a good deal of the disturbances associated with football is due to the amount of alcohol consumed before, during and after matches” (McElhone Report 1977, p. 5).

This was followed by reports throughout the 1980s similarly attributing disorder to alcohol consumption (Shepherd 1989). Initial research following the 1980 ban (Coalter, 1985) highlighted the substantial reduction in the number of offenders being recorded and a decrease in offences such as fighting and missile throwing. At Aberdeen, for example, prior to the introduction of the Act, 61% of offences

were recorded as being ‘drink related’, whereas after the Act this figure fell to 6%. At Glasgow Rangers, the percentage of offences recorded as drink-related fell from 92% to 52%.

While Coalter acknowledges other factors which may have contributed to a reduction in disorder, such as the introduction of seating, he also states the Act and its impacts had been perceived positively: “Club officials and police officers interviewed gave unqualified praise for the contribution which the Act has made to the reduction of levels of disorder and in particular to the decrease in the ncidence of serious offences” (1985, p. 116) Guilianotti (1995) notes that while the legislation has made little to impact on the culture around drinking and its association with football, the ‘drunkenness’ Scottish fans now present is far less of a threat to law. It would be fair to say that once where Scotland and Scottish fans had a bad reputation and association with hooliganism, perceptions of their behaviour have improved, despite the continued pattern of heavy drinking. Similarly Millward’s (2009) research concluded heavy drinking played a large part in the sequence of events of some Rangers supporters causing disturbances, however, this did not go so far as to attribute all disorder to alcohol consumption and the research largely disagreed with authorities who viewed alcohol as a primary ingredient that turned “relatively ordinary supporters into mindless thugs” (Frosdick, Marsh & Chalmers, 2005, p. 99).

Disadvantages of Restrictions Despite the McElhone Report (referenced above) concluding that alcohol was the cause of many of the prob-

lems associated with the game at the time of the 1980 Cup final, many have questioned its validity (Collins and Vamplew, 2002, Pearson and Sale, 2011). Collins and Vamplew (2002) state the report includes no empirical evidence and uses alcohol as a scapegoat for the outbreak of violence. It is argued that rather than being fuelled by alcohol, sections of the young male population were going to engage in unlawful behaviour due to the nature of the occasion and the entrenched history of violence between the two Glasgow clubs and not simply because of the consumption of alcohol. Additionally, the McElhone Report’s explanation of crowd problems fails to account for situations where fans who were not under the influence of alcohol became involved in disorder (Pearson and Sale, 2011).

While there is no simple theoretical model that adequately explains the relationship between alcohol and violence (Bushman, 1997; Wilson, Cohen, & Derzon, 1997), research proposes that crowd disorder is in fact made possible by a shared ‘social identity’ among participants (Stott, Hutchison & Drury, 2001). This is influenced largely by external factors, most notably actions of the police or other fan groups that are perceived as illegitimate rather than being driven by single factors such as the availability of alcohol. This argument is reinforced

by Pearson and Sale (2011) who strongly refute the notion that hooliganism is a product of alcohol consumption and contend that restrictions do not reduce the overall intoxication of fans and in fact increase potential for disorderly situations: “Restrictions are ineffective at reducing the level of drunkenness amongst fans, partly

as a result of police under-enforcement. Furthermore, a by-product of a number of the restrictions is that the level of risk for violence between rival groups of fans is often increased” (p. 164) Despite the apparent successes of the ban in reducing crowd disorder and continued restrictions on consumption, Pearson and Sale’s research is just one of several reports highlighting the negative contribution alcohol continues to make to football in Scotland. For example, ‘traditional’ drunken fighting remains among some Scottish fan groups (Marsh, Fox, Carnibella, McCann & Marsh, 1996); most notable are reports of Rangers (Millward, 2009) and Celtic (Van Der Laan, 2013) supporters being involved in anti-social behaviour while following their club’s progress in European competitions. Additionally, excessive alcohol consumption contributed to one in every five injuries that occurred at Celtic’s home games during the 1999-2000 season (Crawford et al., 2001). Similarly, 27.6% of all charges reported under the Offensive Behaviour and Threatening Communications Football Act (2013) noted the accused were under the influence of alcohol thus demonstrating a failure of the legislation to prevent alcohol’s impact upon crowd disorder.

The above analysis of the existing literature has shown it is hard to attribute crowd disorder as being a definite product of excessive alcohol consumption; however evidence suggests it should be considered a contributing factor to hooliganism (Millward, 2009). There is also a divide of opinion on the effectiveness of alcohol restrictions in reducing the overall levels of intoxication and crowd disorder.

While Pearson and Sale (2011) go as

far as suggesting restrictions such as the 1980 ban are counter-productive to preventing disorder and do not prevent the overall consumption of alcohol, there is sufficient evidence from reports to suggest they have made a positive impact in tackling crowd disorder and hooliganism (Coalter, 1985).

As a result, what this report will seek to investigate, building on the existing knowledge discussed above, is consumer’s perceptions of the effectiveness of restrictions and how they vary across typologies.

Results Overall, based on the results of 2876 participants (191 participants skipped the survey question), there is a majority of people (61.68%) in favour of lifting restrictions on alcohol in Scottish football.

However, further analysis of the results showed levels of imparity in attitudes towards the restriction of alcohol at games depending upon a number of factors, including gender and age. Analysis of results based on gender revealed two major opposing views. While males are predominantly in favour of a relaxation of regulations (63.22% in favour), females were mostly opposed to such proposals with 51.46% of female participants believing restrictions should not be lifted (as shown in Figure 2). Similarly, responses based on age show varying levels of receptiveness. Although there is just one age group seemingly opposed to a relaxation of restrictions, there is a clear trend of growing opposition as age increases, as shown in Figure 2.

Analysis of other comparisons between background information and attitudes generally followed the overall trend of being mostly in favour of lifting restrictions, with only a few exceptions. Findings revealed only eight clubs’ supporters were more opposed than in favour of lifting the ban with fans of Ayr United, Berwick Rangers, Elgin City, Forfar Athletic, Hamilton Academical, Montrose, Queens Park and St Mirren all keen to keep the status quo.

Reasons For The most popular factor in favour of relaxing the ban among both men (88%) and women (85%) was the additional revenue people perceived it would bring clubs. This opinion trended across most demographics and variables with few exceptions. While all supporters in favour of lifting the ban believed it would make a positive contribution to clubs’ revenue, the only variations on it being the most popular response was with the majority of Berwick Rangers, Brechin City, East Stirling, Peterhead, Ross County, Stranraer and Stenhousemuir supporters (who predominantly believed a relaxation would best contribute towards creating a better atmosphere) and fans of Albion Rovers and Stenhousemuir who mostly cited relaxations as encouraging more people to attend games.

Over 50% of all respondents under the age of 50 and in favour of lifting the ban believed any reversal of legislation would help improve the atmosphere at games. Those over the age of 50 were only mainly in favour on account of the revenue and far less positive about the other perceived benefits

a relaxation might bring (as shown in Figure 3).

An analysis of the qualitative answers given by respondents reveals six recurrent themes as to why the ban should be lifted (responses listed as Appendix 1): - ‘The provision of alcohol works in other countries’. Many participants cited England and Germany as examples of countries that have been able to incorporate alcohol into the match day experience.

- ‘A shift in demographics and a change of times’. Many participants highlighted that since the ban was introduced, types of people attending fixtures have changed and there has been a change of culture. Also noted was the fact that hooliganism was the cause of disorder, not drinking, and that element of the game has since disappeared.

- ‘It works in Rugby’. Respondents cited the fact that rugby fans have been able to drink at games since Rugby games were made exempt from the Act in 2007. Many responses question why football is restricted by specific legislation. Some believe that the current legislation is unfair and specifically targets working-class people. One particularly pertinent example is that those at fixtures as hospitality guests have the chance to drink and this was cited to be ‘un-Scottish’ and creating a ‘two-class system’.

- ‘The social aspect of football has been damaged’. One particular respondent commented, “before-game drinking (responsibly) has always been something I’ve done and it puts me off going to games knowing I don’t socialise with my friends as much before the games as I used to”.

This highlights the role of alcohol as a social stimulant.

- ‘An ineffectiveness of restrictions’.

A recurrent theme throughout responses was that fans who want to get drunk would binge drink beforehand and restrictions were ineffective in preventing excessive alcohol consumption. This provides evidence of the legitimacy of Pearson and Sales (2001) claim that restrictions have greater disadvantages than benefits.

One response read relaxing restrictions “may stop people downing drinks before they got to the game, and also encourage them to arrive earlier”.

- ‘Why should we suffer for others’ mistakes?’ The most common response was that questioning why fans of non ‘Old Firm’ clubs should be punished for the misdemeanours of supporters of Celtic and Rangers, as the most referenced incidents of alcohol and crowd disorder have been on their behalf.

Reasons Against Results show that those against the ban are of the opinion the disadvantages of any relaxations would include increased crowd disorder, the creation of an unpleasant atmosphere and it being a deterrent to attracting families to matches. The reason listed most overall was that of it acting as a deterrent to attracting families with the majority of women citing it as a reason not to relax existing legislation, as shown by Figure 4.

When reasons were compared with age groups, as shown in Figure 5, results show those aged under 25s were most opposed on account of alcohol potentially deterring families (75.94%,

a higher percentage than any other age group). Therefore, results would suggest that people are most concerned about the impact that lifting legislation would have on attracting future audiences, with any relaxation of legislation opposing the efforts of many clubs to encourage a more heterogeneous supporter base.

An analysis of the qualitative answers given by respondents (Appendix 2) reveals four recurring themes for opposition of any relaxation beyond the reasons given within the survey: - ‘No need to change’. This popular response among survey participants believed fans had sufficient access to alcohol prior and after games and suggested spectators should be able to survive two hours without a drink with there generally being little need to lift existing legislation.

- ‘An unpleasant experience’. Many respondents suggested allowing a bar to open would cause disturbance throughout the game with people frequently leaving their seat, and affecting the experience of others in the process. Similarly, responses of some who attended games prior to 1980 cited poor experiences of others drinking, such as vomiting, urinating and the general smell associated with alcohol.

- ‘This is a society thing’. Numerous comments suggested that restrictions are required as there are enough problems within Scottish society related to excessive drinking and allowing alcohol within football would only heighten these. One comment read, “It works elsewhere in Europe where social attitudes to alcohol differ greatly from here”.

- ‘The Old Firm Factor’. Similarly to

reasons to lift the ban, there was frequent reference to Celtic and Rangers supporters with many responses suggesting these fans would only cause disruption and disorder if allowed access to alcohol. Many responses did however suggest that access to alcohol might work at smaller clubs.

Perceptions of the Act’s effectiveness Participants of the survey were also asked for their views on the effectiveness of the Act in reducing crowd disorder and anti-social behaviour, the results of which are shown in Figure 6.

As results show, overall, there is indecisiveness on the effectiveness of the legislation with perceptions neither over 50% positively or negatively. Further analysis of the results by age group reveals a much clearer theme.

Similarly to people’s increasing reluctance to see a lift of the ban with age, Figure 6 highlights an increasing approval of the effectiveness of the ban with age. Segmentation of results by club supported revealed fans of Aberdeen, Alloa, Dunfermline Athletic, Elgin City, Falkirk, Greenock Morton and followers of Lowland League sides believed the legislation to be unsuccessful in reducing crowd disorder, however, the vast majority were more positive about its impact upon behaviour at games.

Small-Scale Trial As a final question, survey participants were asked if they would be in favour of the implementation of a small-scale trial of allowing access to alcohol within Scottish football stadia (Figure 8).

When asked about a complete lift of legislation, all age groups were predominantly in favour of a trial; however, resistance grew with age groups.

While women had been mostly against a complete lift, they were more in favour of seeing a small-scale trial. Importantly, a small-scale trial has the support of each of the created profiles.

Discussion and profiles Based on most recurring themes of responses compared with participants’ background information, a series of profiles illustrating supporters’ receptiveness to relaxation of regulations can be produced. Six basic profiles of supporters have been produced in a similar mould to that of Sport England’s segmentation of participants in sport and physical activity (Appendix 3). These do not make up the entirety of responses but represent some of the most common themes.

Profile One: The “Ultra” “Ultras” are self-proclaimed ‘Diehards’ attending every one of the team’s games. They are under (the age of) 25 and have an average income between £10,000 and £24,999. Although an Ultra is largely in favour of lifting the alcohol ban, they do not believe the existing legislation has been successful in reducing crowd disorder.

Most ultras are motivated to attend because of the social and emotional arousal aspect of the sporting fixtures.

They are the profile most strongly of the opinion that the allowance of alcohol would help create a better atmosphere at games.

Profile Two - The “Homeboy” The “Homeboy” holds a season ticket

or attends the large majority of his team’s home games. He is between the ages of 35 and 49 and earns between £25,000 and £39,999. He is largely in favour of a relaxation of restrictions. He strongly believes alcohol provision could help increase clubs’ revenues and believes the ban has been successful in reducing crowd disorder. He is very strongly in favour of seeing a small-scale trial of alcohol provision at a ground.

for any club. “Whippersnappers” are mostly students motivated by the enjoyment of the game itself. They are concerned about the disorder a relaxation of regulations may cause.

One respondent categorised in this profile worries about the impact alcohol may have on children who attend games with adults: “It may be horrible for children to witness their parent or guardian get drunk and, as a result be drawn away from the beautiful game”.

Profile Three - Females “Focused on Fixtures” Females “Focused on Fixtures”, between the ages of 35-49, are strongly opposed to a relaxation of restrictions and are against proposals to see a small-scale trial of alcohol provision.

They believe the ban has been successful in reducing disorder and a lift would deter families from attending.

They are motivated by the ‘True Fan Factor’ and events on the pitch more than any other aspect of the matchday experience.

Profile Six – The “Romantics” Between the ages of 39 and 49, “Romantics” do not attend fixtures as much as they use to, but hark back to a rosier time in Scottish football. They are strongly in favour of seeing a lift of restrictions accessing alcohol as they believe it could help improve a poor product. Outside of the “Ultras”, they are most in favour of a relaxation and could be encouraged to attend more games if they were able to enjoy a beer with the game.

Profile Four – The “Oldboy” “Oldboys” are 60 years or older and retired. They consider themselves a ‘committed regular’ and attend the majority of home games, motivated by supporting their team and a social element. “Oldboys” strongly believe that the legislation has been successful in reducing crowd disorder but are in favour of proposals for a small-scale trial. They attended football in Scotland at a time when hooliganism was rife and do not wish to see a return to those days.

Profile Five – The “Whippersnapper” “Whippersnappers” are young people under (the age of) 25 who will mostly likely form the future support base

Conclusion and Recommendations To conclude, this report shows the issue of access to alcohol within Scottish football to still be highly contentious. Previous literature showed two clear paths of thought; one that alcohol restrictions had made a positive contribution to reducing anti-social behaviour and crowd disorder, although evidence suggests alcohol related disorder has been far from eradicated, and one that implies restrictions are more detrimental than beneficial in reducing issues.

This research sought to build on these studies and provide substantial evidence of the perceptions of the sport’s key consumers. The research has re-

vealed that, through segmentation of supporters into profiles based on their likelihood of attending fixtures and additional variables, there is a split of receptiveness towards the prospect of a lift of current legislation preventing the consumption of alcohol in football stadia.

Fans are overall largely in favour of a relaxation of legislation. However, some profiles of supporters (“Ultras” and “Homeboys”) are very much in favour of a relaxation of legislation, while others (“Females Focused on Fixtures” and “Oldboys”), are far less receptive to the prospect. Fans in favour of the proposal suggested that by allowing football clubs to serve alcohol, as in rugby, clubs would be able to substantially grow their revenue streams. It was also suggested that since the ban was originally introduced, football, stadia, its supporters and times have changed, implying that such regulations were no longer necessary. Those most opposed cited the availability of alcohol acting as a deterrent to encouraging the attendance of families and other groups.

Additionally, many were of the opinion there is simply no need to change the existing legislation. Interestingly, the key reason for those in favour of a relaxation and those opposed was not based around being able to access alcohol. The fact that supporters thought it would increase revenue for clubs shows that supporters are primarily concerned about the financial wellbeing of their club, with the atmosphere element only a secondary factor. Similarly, those opposed were not seemingly against the idea of alcohol, but instead more concerned about the impact its provision may have upon future attendances and families. These

results suggest that supporters are more concerned with the wellbeing and future of their club, rather than their own desire to consume alcohol.

Indeed, the most cited motive for attending fixtures was that of the ‘True Fan Factor’, implying fans are more driven by supporting their team than any other factor.

The issue for sport decision makers comes with balancing the conflicting desires of identified profiles while also considering their social and community value. For clubs and sport managers, there is the additional element of trying to grow a more diverse fan group while considering the majority opinion of supporters’. Based on these results, there are some clear outcomes and suggested recommendations for sport policy makers and sport managers to consider. Firstly, while it is undoubted that ‘True Fans’ are unequivocally in favour of lifting the legislation, the research gathered on their motives for attending fixtures shows their attendance is not affected by additional factors such as access to alcohol, therefore, in the interests of continuing to grow a more diverse supporter base, it is the views of ‘Casual’ supporters which may be more valuable. Based on this, there are sectors opposed to a lift of legislation and it is worth considering the impact of any decision on their experiences and decisions to attend games. The profiles created within this report help condense recurring types of supporters to aid any decision. Secondly, in light of the results showing a large preference to see a small-scale trial implemented, it is suggested that a feasibility study to ascertain how a small-scale trial might work be carried out. Additionally, a cost-benefit analysis compar-

ing potential income versus potentially lost support could be considered.

Finally, it is the personal belief of the author that the notable progress of clubs in attracting new audiences since 1980 could be lost should any decision to reverse legislation take place. As the research has shown, ‘Traditional’ fans will attend all fixtures regardless of additional factors, however, that is not seemingly the case with ‘Modern’ fans whom clubs may isolate should they start allowing access to alcohol. Similarly, while there is an acknowledgement of a shift in football-going experiences since the bans’ introduction, making alcohol provision a more feasible prospect, it is proposed clubs should not sell their social value short in promoting healthy and active lifestyles to their consumers by lifting restrictions.

References Archibald, L. (2013). Football alcohol ban needs reviewed to create extra income for cashstrapped clubs, says Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson. Daily Record. Retrieved from http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/ politics/football-alcohol-ban-needsreviewed-2257884 ban-on-booze-for-Scots-football-fans BDO,. (2013). Finally Playing Fair?

Clubs Start To Getting To Grips With New Financial Regulations.

Coalter, F. (1985). Crowd behaviour at football matches: A study in Scotland.

Leisure Studies, 4(1), 111--117.

Collins, T., & Vamplew, W. (2002).

Mud, sweat, and beers (1st ed., p. 1).

Oxford: Berg.

Crawford, M., Donnelly, J., Gordon, J., MacCallum, R., MacDonald, I., & McNeill, M. et al. (2001). An analysis of consultations with the crowd doctors at Glasgow Celtic football club, season 1999--2000. British Journal Of Sports Medicine, 35(4), 245--249.

Dept.(Edinburgh).

Frosdick, S., Marsh, P., & Chalmers, J. (2005). Football Hooliganism (1st ed.). Cullompton, UK: Willan Publishing.

Gilbride, P. (2013). Government urged to lift ban on booze for Scots football fans. Daily Express. Retrieved from http://www.express.co.uk/scotland/427471/Government-urged-toliftGiulianotti, R. (1991). Scotland’s tartan army in Italy: the case for the carnivalesque*. The Sociological Review, 39(3), 503--527.

Lipsey, M., Wilson, D., Cohen, M., & Derzon, J. (1997). Is there a causal relationship between alcohol use and violence?. Springer, 245--282.

Marsh, P., & Kibby, K. (1992). Drinking and Public Disorder (1st ed., pp.

30-38). London: The Portman Group.

Retrieved from http://www.sirc.org/ publik/dandpd.pdf Marsh, P., & Kibby, K. (1992). Drinking and Public Disorder (1st ed., pp.

30-38). London: The Portman Group.

Retrieved from http://www.sirc.org/ publik/dandpd.pdf McElhone, F. (1977). Football Crowd Behaviour: Report. Scottish Education McLaughlin, C. (2009). Scots chairmen attendance fears. BBC. Re-

trieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/ sport1/hi/football/7951928.stm Millward, P. (2009). Glasgow Rangers Supporters in the City of Manchester The Degeneration of a ‘Fan Party’into a ‘Hooligan Riot’. International Review For The Sociology Of Sport, 44(4), 381--398.

Pearson, G., & Sale, A. (2011). ‘On the Lash’--revisiting the effectiveness of alcohol controls at football matches.

Policing & Society, 21(2), 150--166.

Ross, D. (2005). The Roar of the Crowd: Following Scottish Football Down the Years (1st ed.). Glasgow: Argyll Publishing.

Shepard, J., Irish, M., Scully, C., & Leslie, I. (1989). Alcohol consumption among victims of violence and among comparable UK populations. British Journal Of Addiction, 84(9), 1045-1051.

Stott, C., Hutchison, P., & Drury, J. (2001). ‘Hooligans’ abroad? Intergroup dynamics, social identity and participation in collective ‘disorder’at the 1998 World Cup Finals. British Journal Of Social Psychology, 40(3), 359--384.

Townsend, N. (1997). The British at Play – a social history of British sport from 1600 to the present (1st ed., pp.

1 - 14). Bucharest: Cavallioti Publishers. Retrieved from http://www.pages. drexel.edu/~rosenl/sports%20Folder/ S p o r t % 2 0 a n d % 2 0 t h e % 2 0 Wo r k ing%20Classes.pdf Van Der Laan, E. (2013). Statement of facts of the disturbances related to the CL Ajax-Celtic match on 6 No-

vember 2013 (1st ed.). Amsterdam: Politie. Retrieved from http://www. iamsterdam.com/~/media/PDF/Statement%20of%20facts%20Ajax%20 %20Celtic%20November%206%20 2013.pdf Whitaker, A. (2013). Time to lift alcohol ban at football matches – SFA. The Scotsman. Retrieved from http:// www.scotsman.com/news/politics/ top-stories/time-to-lift-alcohol-banat-

impact of tv on attendances by graeme taylor and kevin mcluskie

Introduction With the increased exposure in the media recently surrounding the financial challenges prevalent in Scottish football (Morrow, 2006), there have been multiple reports about the importance of television money to the Scottish game (BBC Sport, 2012; 2013).

Indeed, following the rebranding of the Scottish football leagues prior to the start of the 2013/14 season, Neil Doncaster, the chief executive of the newly established Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), indicated that revenue from broadcasting accounted for 80-90% of the league’s income (Grahame, 2013). Additionally, in November 2013, a new £20m 10-year rights deal was struck with a sports media rights firm, which will see live SPFL fixtures shown in China through an online streaming provider (BBC Sport, 2013). However, the league at the time of signing the new media deal (and indeed at the time of writing this report) was still without a primary commercial backer. This would appear to provide support for the argument of Allan and Roy (2008), who state that, for the most part, many sports league administrators and club owners view television broadcasting deals increasingly positively, as wide coverage through television can provide a significant level of exposure, and as such secure additional revenues for the leagues in question.

Despite the positive nature of these reports, however, many clubs outside the Premiership (and even some of those in the top flight) are facing financial difficulties, with 13 clubs in the past 13 years entering administration (Fraser, 2013). According to Elliot and Fingland (2004), Celtic Football

Club only generates 8% of its total income through television money, which would suggest that TV broadcasting in Scottish football is more beneficial to the league itself, rather than the member clubs. Additionally, clubs outside the top division are more likely to be dependent on traditional revenue streams, such as gate receipts (Stewart, 2007), with practically no revenue generated from television payments. However, stadium attendances outside the top tiers in football are typically small (Buraimo, Forrest and Simmons, 2006) and appear to be dwindling. Finally, it is important to remember that it is not only TV broadcasting of games within Scotland which can have an adverse effect on stadium attendance. With the increasing levels of exposure to the world’s most lucrative football leagues via TV broadcasting, there is a real threat that Scottish clubs could struggle to attract potential spectators away from watching high-profile leagues (Allan and Roy, 2008). This begs the question: what impact does TV broadcasting actually have on Scottish football?

Review of Literature “The media have for the most part of this century played a central role in the development of sport” (Baimbridge et al, 1996, p. 318). It is perhaps unsurprising then that there has been an increasing amount of literature surrounding the determinants of match day attendance and the impact that television broadcasting may have upon it. When examining the impact of TV broadcasting on stadium attendance, Borland and Macdonald (2003) view television coverage of a sporting event, either live or delayed, as a key direct substitute for the event itself.

This would hint that among the many factors which may influence stadium attendance, television broadcasting may be the most effective at influencing spectator behaviour. Buraimo (2008) argues that the influence TV broadcasting may have on spectator behaviour is of importance, as the fans in attendance at the stadium form part of the televised product and influence its attractiveness on screen, which in turn increases the value of the broadcasting rights that teams and leagues can extract from the broadcast sector.

He warns, however, that broadcasting rights becoming more lucrative could pose a long-term risk itself, as it may lead to some league administrators or club owners becoming less concerned with more traditional revenue streams, such as gate receipts.

Impact of TV Broadcasting on Attendance Most of the literature surrounding the impact of TV broadcasting on stadium attendance has predominantly been focussed on the English Premier League (EPL) and the English Football League. Despite the different methodologies used across these studies, however, they have all found that, despite the regulations which prohibits the screening of live matches at 3pm on Saturday afternoon’s (Sale, 2013), TV broadcasting has a significant negative impact on stadium attendance (Allan and Roy, 2008; Allan, 2004; Baimbridge et al, 1996; Buraimo, 2008; Forrest and Simmons, 2006; Forrest, Simmons and Szymanski, 2004), and as a result, a negative impact on gate revenue (Cox, 2012).

In their respective studies, Allan and Roy (2008), Allan (2004), Baimbridge

et al (1996), Buraimo (2008), and Cox (2012) all found that games shown live through TV broadcasting suffered from a decrease in stadium attendance. This direct impact of TV broadcasting has had varied levels of significance reported. Buraimo (2008) found that this decrease in attendance was largely dependent on the broadcasting platform, as fixtures shown on satellite pay-per-view platforms resulted in a 4.1% decrease in attendance, while fixtures shown on terrestrial (free-to-view) channels experienced a stadium attendance decrease of 17.7%. Allan and Roy (2008) found that TV broadcasting in Scotland had the greatest impact on pay-at-thegate (PATG) home supporters (30% decrease in stadium attendance).

They argue that this is because season ticket (ST) holders’ demand for attendance is relatively insensitive to match day specific characteristics, largely because ST holders tend to be a club’s most loyal supporters.

They add that although there is a decrease in PATG away supporters, this decrease is not significant, with a potential explanation being that travelling fans are also more likely to be ST holder’s, and as such, less influenced by the live showing of their club’s fixtures. Cox (2012) on the other hand, found that on average, when a game in the EPL is broadcast live there is a significant reduction in gate revenue (and therefore attendance) of almost 20%. He states, however, that this effect is smaller for clubs in the “Top 4” and much larger for those clubs in the “Bottom 5”, indicating that there may be other match-specific characteristics which impact stadium attendance.

Finally, Baimbridge et al (1996) found that satellite TV has a significant net negative effect on stadium attend-

ance. However, they argue that the greatest impact is felt on those fixtures which have been switched from a Saturday to a live screening on a weeknight, with a stadium attendance decrease of 15.2%. This perhaps could be expected, as TV broadcasting regulations prohibit the screening of live fixtures during typical match times (3pm on a Saturday afternoon), therefore, these fixtures will not experience any reduction in attendance due to live broadcasting.

The impact of TV broadcasting, however, extends beyond the divisions and leagues chosen for live screening. Forrest, Simmons and Szymanski (2004) and Forrest and Simmons (2006) argue that it is more important for Football League (EFL) clubs to make further gains through traditional revenue sources, including stadium attendance, due to the financial differences in television revenue between the EFL and the EPL. The impact of live screening of games in the EFL is particularly concerning then, as Forrest and Simmons (2006) found that English Championship games broadcast live on TV suffer from a decrease in stadium attendance of between 10 – 18%. While this represents a significant decrease in attendance for Division 1 fixtures, the decrease in attendance at Division 2 and 3 games is not significant due to the low number of fixtures covered live. Additionally, Simmons and Forrest (2006) argue that Division 2 and 3 are particularly sensitive to problems of midweek fixture congestions, and therefore, any fixtures screened live during midweek may have a significant impact on stadium attendance.

Finally, TV broadcasting of Cham-

pions League fixtures poses an extremely significant threat on stadium attendance for English and Scottish clubs, particularly those outside the top divisions. While Buraimo (2008) found that stadium attendance in the EPL on Champions League nights decrease by 5.1%, Forrest and Simmons (2006) and Forrest, Simmons and Szymanksi (2004) found that the impact on clubs out with the top tier in England experience a significantly greater decline in attendance. Both studies found that live screening of Champions League fixtures involving EPL clubs had a significant net negative impact on stadium attendance for all EFL clubs, with a decrease of 13% in Division 1 attendance, 21.4% in Division 2 attendance, and 15.8% in Division 3 attendance. These decreases represent a pure revenue loss for clubs, as there is no compensation provided for reduced stadium attendance as a result of live broadcasting of Champions League fixtures.

It can be argued that the impact of TV broadcasting on stadium attendance is a more threatening issue for Scottish football clubs, given the relatively small incomes generated from broadcasting rights (Allan and Roy, 2008).

In general, Scottish clubs lack a global outreach comparable with that of other leading professional sports clubs, and the negotiated broadcasting deals are substantially smaller than those in some of the other (smaller) leagues around Europe. Furthermore, as many Scottish clubs have a close relationship with their local communities, with most clubs being more than 100 years old, they draw a significant proportion of their support from their surrounding area. Therefore, any loss in stadium attendance as a result of TV broad-

casting poses a significant threat to the sustainability of many clubs.

Secondary Impacts of TV Broadcasting While this report is predominantly focussed on the impact of TV broadcasting on stadium attendance, it is still important to recognise the secondary impacts which TV broadcasting may have on football clubs and its supporters.

Baimbridge et al (1996) observed that the increase in income within the EPL through the sale of television rights has resulted in several repercussions, the most observable of these being the significant increases in transfer spending and player salaries. They state that as there is a limited supply of talented players in football, and with the increased pressure to stay in the EPL (due to the significantly lower financial opportunities in the English Championship) and the benefits associated with qualifying for the lucrative European club competitions, it is unsurprising that additional revenue generated by clubs through the sale of TV rights is being diverted into team building. However, as this increased spending in the transfer market has largely resulted in an influx of foreign player in recent years, many clubs in lower divisions (and indeed in smaller leagues, such as the SPFL) who rely on player sales to remain financially solvent have seen an important source of revenue significantly decrease.

Results Having identified that there is a high probability of a drop in match attendance at live televised fixtures, it is nec-

essary to analyse match attendance and viewing figures for live televised SPL fixtures in order to ascertain whether or not this is true to Scottish football. For the purposes of this study, analysis has been made using attendance data gathered from each SPL club during the 2012/13 season, along with viewing figures for live televised SPL fixtures during the same season.

Initial inspection of the attendance and viewing figures would suggest that live broadcasting does not have adverse affect on the match attendance and therefore is contrary to the majority of the literature on this matter.

Only one club, Aberdeen, reported a decrease in average attendance at televised games when compared to their average attendance for the whole season. The majority of SPL clubs posted a significant positive increase in attendance at televised games, throwing doubt on the generally accepted notion that televising games will take away from the ground. However, Scottish football is not a straight forward proposition and, as with most other facets of the game, further inspection is needed in this area in order to provide a clearer picture.

The ‘problem’ that Scottish football has in terms of match attendance Vs. television ratings is also the main reason why a broadcasting deal – and the revenues it brings – is available to Scottish football. That ‘problem’ is Celtic. Celtic are somewhat of an anomaly in Scottish football; their stadium capacity far exceeds anything else in the top-flight, their financial muscle puts them streets ahead of the competition, and their fan base is worldwide, let alone Scotland wide.

As a result, Celtic, with their large and fiercely loyal support, often outnumber ‘home’ fans when visiting fellow SPL/SPFL Premiership grounds, regardless of whether the game is being broadcast on TV or not. Therefore, the inclusion of data relating to home games against Celtic skews the attendance results and gives a false outcome. By removing Celtic games from consideration, as shown in Table 2, we are presented with a whole new data set and a far less inspiring set of results. In this scenario 5 clubs reported a reduction in match attendance at televised games in comparison to their season averages, and a further 2 clubs, St. Mirren and Ross County, do not qualify for consideration as their only televised games were against Celtic. Table 2 therefore shows that at televised games not involving Celtic, there is a higher propensity that fans will stay away and watch the game on TV. Thus, further highlighting the ‘Celtic anomaly’; the main reason Scottish football has a TV broadcasting deal is due to Celtic’s presence – without Rangers in the Premiership they are the only show in town – and therefore the broadcasting revenue received by other clubs in mainly due to Celtic’s continuation in Scottish football. However, this comes at a cost as fans of the other clubs stay away from their own teams games when they are broadcast on TV and, as a result, are denying their clubs of much needed gate revenue.

In order to be beneficial, each clubs share of the leagues broadcasting revenue must at least cover the loss of the circa 600-2000 stay away fans.

It is not only the ‘Celtic anomaly’ that affects attendance of live televised fixtures, but also the day on which the

game is played. Traditionally football is played at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon when no games are televised.

The advent of increased television coverage however has opened up the possibility of being able to watch a game of football any day of the week. Scottish football is slowly falling into this trap with games now frequently being televised on Friday’s, Saturday’s, and Sunday’s, with the odd midweek game thrown in for good measure. It is also the broadcasting companies who decide upon the date and time of the live games, with little or no input from fans. So, does the day on which a televised game is played impact on the match attendance?

Monday Games Only one game was broadcast on a Monday and it featured Hibs Vs. Aberdeen. The match attendance was 8,326 which falls below the SPL average attendance for the season however, as that figure includes Celtic and the game did not, then the results are potentially misleading. The average attendance at non-Celtic games was 7,040 and therefore attendance at this fixture exceeded that number and could be viewed as a success. However by considering a further variable, Hibs average attendance at games not against Celtic (10,139), then the attendance was approximately 1,800 below average. While the date and time of the game would not be the only factor causing fans to stay away, the vast nature of the drop in attendance shows that fans do not want to attend games on a Monday night. The knock on effect to this being reduced gate revenue for the clubs.

Tuesday Games The season’s only live televised Tues-

day night fixture featured Aberdeen at home to Ross County. The game drew a TV audience of 40,000, whilst 6,394 fans attended the game. As with the solitary Monday night fixture, the attendance for this game also fell below the season average attendance for fixtures not involving Celtic and was also far below Aberdeen’s season average attendance for non-Celtic games (8,663). A possible explanation for the low attendance may purely be down to the fact that the game was played on a Tuesday night, with fans having other commitments (work, family, etc.) that stopped them from attending. However, by broadcasting the game live and removing barriers to accessing the game, it then becomes an easier to stay at home and watch the game on TV. The stats for this game suggest that circa 2,300 fans decided that watching the game from the comfort of their living rooms was a more appealing proposition that attending in person, therefore furthering the argument that televising games has a negative effect on live match attendances.

Wednesday Games Four fixtures were broadcast on Wednesday nights, none of which involved Celtic, with an average match attendance of circa 8,800. This represents an increase on the average attendance of non-Celtic fixtures of circa 1,800, and therefore it could be suggested that televising Wednesday night fixtures does not negatively impact on match attendance. However it is important to note that Celtic were involved, as the away side, in three of these fixtures. As mentioned earlier, the “Celtic anomaly” comes into play when further analysing the success of fixtures broadcast on a Wednesday due to the high volume of fans they

bring to each game. In all three fixtures involving Celtic, the home side saw an increase in of circa 2,0004,000 on their season average attendance; this can mainly be put down to the fact that Celtic were involved in the fixture, their large travelling support, and the oppositions fans wanting to see a ‘big club’ or ‘big game’ at their ground. The only fixture that did not involve Celtic was between St. Johnstone and Aberdeen with this fixture posting a paltry attendance of 2,167; an attendance level far below both the league average and St. Johnstone’s own season average attendance.

Closer inspection of Wednesday night fixtures would then suggest that it is only games involving Celtic that see an increase in live attendance, whereas games in which do not feature will suffer a severe drop in attendance.

Thursday Games The only fixture broadcast on a Thursday was the New Year’s Edinburgh Derby and saw an increase in live attendance at the game. However, as it was Derby match and held over the Festive Period, which traditionally sees a higher turnout of fans in any case, then this fixture was always likely to produce a high match attendance. Due to those reasons televising the game would have no impact little impact on a fans decision on whether to attend the game or not and is therefore the perfect type of game to broadcast; i.e. one where broadcasting the game or not will have no impact on the match attendance.

Friday Games 2012/13 saw the introduction of Friday night football to the SPL and it could be argued that the project was a success. Three games were broad-

cast on Friday nights with two of the fixtures seeing the home clubs (Inverness and Motherwell) posting higher than average attendances. A case may be made that Inverness’ game was a Highland Derby against Ross County, however that would fall into the same category as the Edinburgh Derby in terms of being a game that fans of neither club would want to miss being at and therefore televising it should have little impact on the attendance. While both the Inverness and Motherwell fixtures saw increased attendances for the home clubs, the match attendance for both fixtures fell below that of the league average (for non-Celtic fixtures). The third Friday night game was a home fixture for Aberdeen against Dundee and although the attendance was below Aberdeen’s season average, it was above the league average. Therefore it would appear that Friday night football is popular amongst the fans and broadcasting games on this day does not negatively impact on match attendance.

Saturday Games 14 games were broadcast on Saturday’s either in the early afternoon or early evening slots, with two games seeing Celtic as the home side and a further seven with Celtic as the away team. On each occasion where Celtic was involved, the home side saw an increase in match attendance on their individual season averages; however only three fixtures (both Celtic home fixtures and one away to Aberdeen) saw increased attendance on the leagues season average. All five of the non-Celtic fixtures saw match attendance fall below the home side’s season average, with two fixtures posting attendances above the league

average. It could then argued that broadcasting games on a Saturday has a negative impact on match attendance unless Celtic are involved in the fixture; otherwise the stats show that match attendance falls below the home clubs season average.

Sunday Games There were 22 games broadcast on a Sunday in 2012/13 with 7 involving Celtic (3 at home, 4 away). On this occasion only one of the home games saw an increase in attendance on the season average, with the other two falling below Celtic’s season average attendance. All four away games saw the respective home sides see an increase on their average attendance, however only one fixture (versus Dundee United) saw an attendance higher that league season average.

Of the other fixtures, 8 saw increases on the average attendance with 7 showing a decrease for the respective home sides. However 11 games reported attendances higher than the league average attendance for the season. Based on the information available, it would suggest that, on the whole, broadcasting Sunday fixtures does not have a negative impact on match attendance, certainly and unusually, in fixtures not involving Celtic.

Overall, the impact on television broadcasting of Scottish football games has a mixed impact on live match attendance, as indicated in the literature review. The figures suggest that games shown on Monday’s - Wednesday’s will negatively impact on the live attendance. Thursday’s are so far inconclusive due to the only game broadcast on a Thursday in 2012/13 being an Edinburgh derby

and therefore unlikely that it’s broadcasting would impact on attendance.

Friday night games seem popular with the fans with two of the three games showing increased attendances for the home sides. As for the weekends, the figures their become slightly skewed with Celtic’s presence however it would appear that Sunday broadcasts have less of a negative impact on live match attendance than Saturday fixtures.

Ultimately, the best games for broadcasting in terms of limiting the impact on live match attendance are games involving Celtic (home and away) and local derbies, as these games guarantee a high turnout regardless of whether they are broadcast on TV or not. Finally, as mentioned earlier, TV broadcasting has been found to have a more significant negative impact on PATG spectators, particularly in lower divisions. This decrease in stadium attendance by PATG supporters, however, does not only represent a significant loss in ticket sale revenue, but will also have a negative impact on other concessions (Buraimo, 2008). Allan and Roy (2008) state that as PATG spectators do not attend matches as frequently as season ticket holders, they are more likely to spend larger amounts on merchandise and concessions on the match days they do attend, lending weight to the argument that a decrease in stadium attendance will have a significantly more substantial financial impact than just a loss in ticket sale income. It is important to remember, however, that those clubs taking part in televised matches will often receive a “facility fee”, to act as compensation for any potential loss of gate revenue and the subsequent loss of income from secondary match-day

spending (Forrest et al, 2004). In fact, Baimbridge et al (1996) found that this “facility fee” would often be in excess of any losses, and was in fact a source of additional revenue for clubs. However, as has already been stated, TV broadcasting can have a negative impact on stadium attendance for matches not only in the lower divisions of the domestic league, but also for matches in leagues with a smaller audience.

Therefore, for these smaller clubs, a reduction in stadium attendance as a result of TV broadcasting represents a substantial loss in revenue.

Conclusion Fraser (2013) has observed that the flood of money into the English game from BskyB (and other television deals) put the top tier of English clubs into a virtuous spiral of investment leading to success leading to global audiences and followings. Conversely, Scotland just doesn’t have the audience to justify a big TV spend, which Fraser (2013) suggests has led to many clubs over-spending in their team building efforts, resulting in the financial hardships faced by many Scottish clubs today. According to Neil Patey, a football finance analyst at Ernst & Young, the entire Scottish top tier is getting less than half the amount of TV money heading the way of the worst performing club in the EPL. This makes it difficult to understand why there is so much emphasis placed on the securing of TV deals in Scotland, especially when considering that the results of this paper and prior research have shown TV broadcasting has a negative impact on stadium attendance.

The gamble on the Scottish game

receiving significant investment from selling the league’s TV rights and going the same way as the English one has built up a lot of debt, with several of Scotland’s biggest clubs entering administration in the past few years.

With the level of importance currently placed on TV money in Scotland, and working under the assumption that there is a direct link between actively supporting a particular team and attending matches in person, there is a real danger that Scottish football will distance itself from local fans and that “TV broadcasting could have serious consequences for the future of Scottish clubs” (Allan and Roy, 2008, p.

594).

The Stats As the previous research has identified the high probability of falling match attendances at live televised games, it is necessary to provide analysis of this thesis in the context of Scottish football. For the purposes of this study, analysis has been made using attendance data gathered from each SPL club during the 2012/13 season, along with viewing figures for live televised SPL fixtures during the same season. Before beginning the analysis process it is worthwhile to point out a distinctly Scottish anomaly that affects the results of the research carried out; namely, Celtic. Celtic’s fans are renown for travelling in large numbers to each and every away fixture regardless of whether it is being televised or not. Opposition clubs have been known to take advantage of this by offering Celtic two, or even three stands at away fixtures, thus the level of match attendance at a televised Celtic away fixture is highly unlikely to be adversely affected. The study

has taken this into consideration and produced results both including and excluding Celtic in order to provide as thorough an overview as possible.

Table 1, which includes Celtic’s data, suggests that live broadcasting of fixtures does not have an adverse affect on match attendance as only Aberdeen posted a reduced average attendance at televised games as opposed to non-televised games. Half the clubs showed increases of over 1,000 fans at a televised game compared to their regular attendance, and the remaining clubs all posted increases in attendance with the exception of St. Johnstone whose attendance was not affected by live broadcasting of fixtures. Table 1 would therefore suggest that Scottish football bucks the trend and that live match attendance is not affected by televising the game.

Table 2 however considers the Celtic factor and paints a different story. By removing televised fixtures involving Celtic from the equation it can be seen that five of the clubs recorded lower than average attendances at televised fixtures; circa 500-1,200 depending on the club. Furthermore, neither Ross County nor St. Mirren were involved in televised games that did not involve Celtic, therefore over half the clubs posted negative attendance figures.

Of the clubs who posted increased attendance results for televised games, three were involved in derby matches which are guaranteed to draw in the crowds. Table 2 would therefore appear to suggest that fans are less likely to turn out and watch their side play if the game is being shown on TV unless Celtic are involved in the fixture or it is a derby match. The audience figures show that there is interest in Scottish

football as all the clubs recorded TV viewing figures that far exceed their average match attendance. The problem is in trying to attract these fans back into the stadiums on a match day and it is an issue that live broadcasting does not help. Without the appeal of Celtic coming to visit with their large travelling fan base, it would appear that Scottish football follows the notion that live broadcasting of games does adversely affect the live match attendance. Unfortunately there is no easy solution to this problem as scrapping any TV deal removes a much needed source of income for the clubs with no guarantee that any extra fans will attend games should they no longer be broadcast.

A further issue affecting match attendance with relation to TV broadcasting is the wide variety of days and times that games now take place. No longer is football a Saturday afternoon sport, broadcasting companies now dictate kick off times and we are seeing more and more games move away from the traditional kick off time. So, how has that impacted on live match attendance in Scotland? Once again, analysis will take into account all televised fixtures during the 2012/13 season.

Consideration has also been given to fixtures where Celtic not the home in order to provide analysis of attendance at televised games for the other SPL clubs. Monday & Tuesday Night Fixtures Both Monday and Tuesday nights had one fixture broadcast during the 2012/13 season. On both occasions the fixture did not involve Celtic and the respective home sides, Hibernian and Aberdeen, both saw reductions on their season average attendance

for fixtures not involving Celtic; circa 1,800 – 2,300 fewer fans attended these fixtures. The drop in attendance and the sizeable audience figures suggest that fans would rather stay at home and watch the games on TV than attend the ground.

Wednesday Fixtures A more traditional mid-week football day, Wednesday saw 4 fixtures televised; three of these games involved Celtic as the away side. The average attendance at the games involving Celtic saw the home side record attendance increases of between 2,000 - 4,000 on their respective average attendances. However, the one fixture that did not involve Celtic saw a paltry 2,167 turn out to see St. Johnstone Vs. Aberdeen; a figure well below both the SPL and St. Johnstone’s own average attendance. Thus highlighting the Celtic anomaly. The only televised fixtures posting increased attendance at the game were those involving Celtic, with the one fixture not involving Celtic seeing a large decline in attendance. Therefore televising games on a Wednesday night would also appear to adversely affect live attendance, unless Celtic are involved.

Thursday and Friday Night Fixtures 2012/13 saw the introduction of Friday night football to Scottish football with a total of 4 fixtures broadcast over the two days during the course of the season.

Thursday only live broadcast fixture was the New Year’s Edinburgh derby at Tynecastle. As expected, there was an increase in match attendance on both Hearts’ and the league average attendance at this fixture due to it being a derby. Such fixtures have a high level of interest in them and consistently attract above

average attendances and therefore live broadcasting of the game is unlikely to have an effect on the match attendance. The three Friday fixtures that were broadcast live in 2012/13 also make positive reading in terms of the match attendance. Two of the fixtures saw above average attendances for the respective home sides, although these were both below the league average, while the third fixture saw an increase on the league’s average attendance but a decline for the home side, Aberdeen. Overall, Friday night football could be viewed as a success as match attendance was not unduly affected.

Saturday Fixtures 14 games were broadcast on Saturday’s either in the early afternoon or early evening slots in 2012/13. Nine of these fixtures involved Celtic and in each occasion the home side recorded increased attendance against their individual season average. Of the five fixtures that did not involve Celtic, none of the home sides met their average attendance level. Furthermore, only five of Saturday’s broadcast games had live attendances that exceeded the SPL’s average attendance. It could then argued that broadcasting games on a Saturday has a negative impact on match attendance Without the ‘Celtic factor’ the majority of games recorded below average attendances, thus hinting that fans are tempted to stay away from the ground if the game is televised.

Sunday Fixtures 22 games were broadcast live on Sundays in 2012/13 with the attendance data providing a mixed bag of results.

13 fixtures recorded higher than average attendance for the home clubs

with 11 fixtures posting attendances above the SPL average. However, 9 fixtures saw a decline in average attendance for the home side with 11 recording attendances below the SPL average.

It is therefore difficult to judge the true impact that live broadcasting of Sunday fixtures has on live attendance as the positive and negative impacts appear to balance each other out.

On the whole, the live broadcasting of fixtures and its impact on live match attendance appears to have a mixed set of results with respect to Scottish football as indicated in the literature review. There are a number of different factors that need to be taken into consideration such as the day/time of the fixture, closeness of opponents, stage of the season, importance of the fixture etc, in order to ascertain the value of broadcasting games live and maintaining attendance levels. From the data analysed for this report, it would suggest that broadcasting fixtures involving Celtic and local derbies will have the least negative impact on the match attendance. Friday night football also proved popular with the fans and it is worth noting that none of these games were derbies or involved Celtic, therefore it may be worth considering increasing the number of Friday night games being broadcast in order to provide further exposure for all clubs.

summer football by kevin mcluskie and Georgios Vagenas

Introduction As the cold winter winds begin to bite the question of whether or not we should introduce ‘Summer Football’ in to the Scottish game is never far from the minds of fans across the country.

The argument has three main proponents, namely; the hazardous weather conditions that can make playing football an often impossible task, the decline in attendance during the cold winter months as fans choose to stay away from games rather than sit in freezing temperatures to watch an often below-par product, and the cost to clubs of postponements or from having to turn the undersoil heating on.

This last point also carries with it an environmental issue which will also need to be addressed at a later date.

Returning to the issue of ‘summer football’, Scotland is known to endure fairly severe winters with temperatures regularly falling below zero and large snowfall not an uncommon sight.

It is therefore worth noting that the current Scottish football season runs from July to May, and takes during the period of December to February – the winter months with the harshest weather conditions. During this period, as the research will show, it is not uncommon for the weather conditions to cause damage to football pitches or for games to fall foul of the conditions resulting in postponements and rearranged fixtures. It is the latter point that causes the most concern due the potential loss of income from smaller attendances and reduced corporate sales that has led many to suggest that rescheduling the football calendar around more favourable weather conditions would have financial benefits for the clubs. Not to mention the po-

tential for a better product on the pitch with games being played on better surfaces for a longer period of the season. However, as with all arguments, there is a flip-side as not everyone is in favour of such a dramatic change to the Scottish football landscape. A large percentage of Scottish fans do not wish to move away from the current calendar stating preservation of traditions and other fears associated with ‘summer football’ as their main reasons to oppose any such change.

Hence the need for proper debate and consultation across the national game on this matter in order to decide upon the best way forward.

The role that this paper aims to perform is to identify the key arguments for and against ‘summer football’ in Scotland and to put across the views of the fans, the lifeblood of the game.

As the great Jock Stein put it, football is nothing without fans, and their opinions must be listened to as Scottish football goes through its current period of change. With this in mind it is imperative that clubs do all they can to attract fans to the stadium to watch their games. Clubs regularly offer incentives to fans to encourage increased turnouts such as cheap tickets for children, however one persistent stumbling block to attracting crowds can be found in the severe winter weather conditions.

While there is little that can be done to alter the weather, one proposal that may be beneficial to the Scottish game would be a switch to ‘summer football’. A season running from the beginning of March to the end of November, for example, would avoid the worst of the winter period, allowing games to be played during the best weather conditions, and therefore reducing the

likelihood of postponements. A similar model has been tried in Scandinavia, Russia, and Ukraine; countries that also suffer from a severe winter during which time it can sometimes prove impossible to stage football matches.

Whist the Scottish winter may not be just as severe as the winters experienced in the above mentioned countries; it is severe enough to result in reduced attendances across the winter months. With this in mind, a summer league may prove to be an attractive proposition for Scottish fans that are otherwise put off attending matches due to poor weather conditions.

Season 2011/12 may have arguably seen the best winter in Scotland for several years however the disruption caused by cancelled and re-arranged fixtures of the previous two winters, which resulted in clubs losing vast sums of revenue, should not be forgotten. Research has shown that fixtures rescheduled for midweek can result in attendances of 40% lower than at games played on a Saturday.

The reduction in attendances also equates to a similar reduction in revenue which can have a major impact on the clubs, especially smaller community run clubs. The lost revenue is money that the clubs cannot recuperate and is therefore money lost to Scottish game.

There are of course positives and negatives to any changes to the current schedule and this article will go some way to looking at the potential impacts that summer football may bring about.

Scottish Premier League Analysis of the postponed match average for the Scottish Premier League identifies the winter months as being the period for most postponements

and disruption to the fixture list. For example, after round 22 of season 2011/12 only 5 of the 12 SPL sides had played all their scheduled matches; the remaining clubs having all lost at least one fixture to the weather. Furthermore, the statistics from season 2007/08 through to season 2011/12 show that there were 52 postponed league games with the vast majority due to inclement weather conditions (see Appendix A for season by season data).

A further problem brought about by the poor weather conditions during the winter period relates to the drop in attendance of matches that beat the weather and went ahead during this time. Two questions that need to be addressed regards this area are: 1) How many people attended matches during the winter months and how does this compare to the number that attended at the beginning or the end of the season when the weather was better?

2) How many people attended rearranged matches during winter that had been rescheduled for midweek?

A look at the attendance statistics for the SPL in season 2011/12 can provide us with enough information to make educated conclusions for both questions. The following table provides information on the lowest recorded attendance for each SPL side in 2011/12. From the table it can identified that 5 clubs experienced their lowest attended fixture between December and February – the harshest of the winter months. 4 clubs experienced their lowest attended match in May where potentially neither side had anything to play for. It is worthwhile noting that the lowest attended game of the season was a rescheduled fixture that took place on a Tues-

day night in December, with a forecast of snow making it difficult for fans to get to the stadium. Thus, it can be deduced that the possible factors resulting in poor attendance can include weather conditions and games being played in midweek.

and rearranged which gave an immediate hit on the cash flow”.

- Bryan Jackson, Administrator (Dundee, Motherwell, Hearts & Dunfermline)

Further analysis of SPL average attendance figures shows that the season-by-season average attendance for the league has seen a decline in attendance in the period 2009/10 up to and including the current 2013/14 season.

The most important voice to be listened to in any debate regarding significant change to Scottish football is that of the fans. As has already been stated, the fans are the lifeblood of the game. If they do not back any changes to their game then the change will have been in vain.

In order to ascertain the views of Scottish football fans on the matter of summer football, the Scottish Fans website published an online question to the pieandbovril.com forum on 9th December 2012 lasting until the 16th December 2012. During that time a number of fans provided their responses with the majority of fans replying that they were not in favour of a change to a summer league. Reasons given for the opposition to change included; The current structure traditional to Scotland; Fans did not want to lose the matches over the Christmas period; The unpredictability of the weather may act as a leveller for smaller clubs against the larger clubs in the league; There is always the feeling that next year will be better; The summer is a holiday period where fans fill their leisure time with other pursuits and will not attend football matches; and The summer time is for national team competitions and therefore this may provide an obstacle to a summer league.

While it is difficult to provide a definitive explanation for this, it is feasible to suggest that weather conditions and the negative impact that they can have on the standard of football and quality on offer to the customer plays an important role in determining whether or not fans turn out for matches. Of course, one factor that must also be considered is the loss of Rangers to the league as their large fan base would obviously have an impact on the average attendance for the league as a whole. What the attendance information does clearly show though is that attendances are on the decline as a whole and in particular during the winter period. Any drop in attendance has the knock on effect of reduced revenue for clubs and therefore summer football, or at least a winter break, must be a consideration for Scottish football in order to maximise attendance and match-day revenue. This is a view that is supported by the administrator Bryan Jackson who states that: “From a financial perspective, I would say yes to summer football. Whilst Administrator at Motherwell and Dundee, I experienced games being postponed

The Fans Opinion

Not all responses were negative with

some fans and football professionals seemingly open to a change to summer football. David Mackinnon, who has performed the roles of General Manager at Kilmarnock and Chief Executive of Dundee, is one high profile fan who is in favour of summer football. Mackinnon is of the view that ‘if we were re-inventing the game today we would play over the summer months’. He also makes an interesting point regards performance in European competition by stating that ‘we now seem to play from June onwards to pre-qualify, unsuccessfully, for Europe so changing the season will have a huge impact on attendances, skill levels and maybe, just maybe, would see us qualifying more as we’d be in the middle of the season and not trying to get match fit in these crucial Euro games’.

Another high profile supporter of a move to summer football is Donald McGruther, Director of Insolvency, Scotland at Mazars. McGruther is of the belief that ‘If ever there was a no brainer in Scottish Football then to me this is it.’ He qualifies his view by adding that during his time at Falkirk it was often impossible to find decent training facilities in the winter months and that he sympathised with fans having to sit in dark, freezing stadiums in winter, watching two teams battling against the conditions whilst trying to put on an entertaining spectacle.

Conclusion Scottish top-flight football is currently witnessing a decline in match day attendance. As a direct consequence of this clubs are losing out on vital revenue from ticket sales and other match day commercial activities. While it

may not be the sole cause of falling attendances, there is a definite body of evidence suggesting that fans are less likely to attend matches played during the winter months. Therefore, although we cannot change our weather system we can, perhaps, change our football calendar in order to boost attendances and revenues. A summer league would, in theory at least, be beneficial in achieving increased attendances. Having said that, there are still several factors that will need to be overcome before this can become a reality; convincing the majority of fans who are afraid of change is possibly the biggest hurdle to overcome.

Without the support of all stakeholders in Scottish football a change to a summer league cannot happen and the possible benefits that it could bring will never be seen. Should the recent trend of declining attendances continue into the future then maintaining the status quo will inevitably see clubs suffer from further reduced match day income. This paper cannot predict the future and cannot guarantee the success of a summer league however it does suggest that a move to summer football opens up the possibility for increased revenue and match attendance by playing games in more advantageous weather conditions.

Thus, there would be fewer postponements and less fixtures being played during the severe winter months.

Of course, any change of this magnitude needs a plan and a strategy in order to ensure its smooth implementation. This paper was not aimed at providing such a strategy but rather at presenting the advantages and disadvantages from a practical point of view and from a fans perspective.

It is the opinion of this paper that,

when considering the financial advantages, potential for increased match attendance, and the possibility of an improved product on the pitch, then the implementation of summer football is one that should be seriously considered at the very top of the Scottish game. Despite the current opposition from the fans, with the right marketing and approach to selling the new concept then it is entirely possible to get fans onside and in favour of the proposal. It is also worth considering that football fans are extremely loyal to their club and the lure of fandom would probably ensure that a significant number of fans would continue to attend games regardless of when they are held.

Further to the opinion that summer football should at least be given proper consideration, it is also the view of the authors of this paper that other changes to the league structure be considered at the same time. For example it may also be worthwhile implementing a structure that moves away from the current monotonous system of playing the same opposition four times a season; a structure that the fans are not in favour of and one that may be a contributory factor in the current low level of attendance.

Benefits of Summer Football Through the research carried out in producing this paper the authors suggest that the following reasons for change and benefits could be achieved through the implementation of summer football in Scotland; Changes to the dynamic of the current stale set up; It offers a change to encourage new fans; It could work to attract families;

provides an opportunity to sell selling more summer focussed merchandise; Would help clubs market to a different (family) audience. Two scenarios a) come out in a freezing cold December day where it is so windy the football entertainment is curtailed or b) come along in spring, summer, and autumn when the grass is green the temperatures are warmer and there is the chance of making it a far more enjoyable experience.

Fans can travel home from away matches for a few hours of daylight rather than in a dark, wet night.

Far less postponements means less chance of losing money and helps reduce the uncertainty of budgeting.

It has worked in the Scandinavian countries where they ALL have a higher co-efficient than Scottish clubs and ALL their national teams are ranked higher than the Scotland national team.

Could revitalise the game and get more people talking about it and playing the game. The school holidays for example provides a fantastic opportunity during the 8 week period to get the community programmes working at full tilt to engage with the next generation through coaching and by bringing them into stadiums and out from under the feet of the parents.

Potential for more lucrative TV deals in summer.

Ground maintenance costs reduced in the summer A switch to summer football is one that Scottish football needs to consider as the current format does not seem to be attracting the fans. It also has the support of several high-profile football industry professionals and is therefore a topic that needs to be fully discussed at boardroom level. While

the paper is in support of the concept of summer football, there is a realisation that to implement it would require a great deal of planning to overcome problems such; as a transition season, how a winter pre-season would work, and when do the players get a summer holiday? These are all hurdles that can be overcome if Scottish football is willing to take the first step and seriously debate the possibility of summer football and realise the potential it could have for our national game.

segmentation and typology of fans

by Digonis Konstantinos and andrew jenkin

Introduction The football industry despite being illustrious and involving huge sums of money has long been criticised as functioning in a quite amateur way when it comes to knowing its customers, the fans.

Any other industry has taken that leap long ago but football clubs have long refused to do so. This is partly due to their taking their fans loyalty for granted. It is true that loyalty in the football market is in a level so high that one could say it is undreamed for any convectional sector. One would change his spaghetti brand any given time if he was offered just a slightly better quality/price ratio but football fans surely do not function that way.

Another important factor has to do with the sport related media boom in the last couple of decades which has provided professional clubs, at least the “big” ones, with large sums of money almost for free. Suddenly football clubs found themselves in a position where they could largely completely ignore the fans altogether as the equilibrium has been altered in such a high degree that media contracts had replaced match day income as their primary source of revenue.

A question however is still hovering and is being discussed more and more as the years go by: “Is loyalty alone enough to sustain the wellbeing of the football business in the long term?”

The answer to the above question is of course is a “no”. Loyalty may be a strong advantage but it is bound to decrease in the long term unless the

clubs decide to face the music and take steps towards bringing the fans back to the stadia.

After all, as legendary Scottish manager Jock Stein famously noted: “Without fans who pay at the turnstile, football is nothing. Sometimes we are inclined to forget that. The only chance of bringing them into stadiums is if they are entertained by what happens on the football field.”

So the key to bring the fans to the game is to provide entertainment. But what kind of entertainment do fans seek? Obviously not every fan sees eye to eye on that matter. Just like in any other market, football customers are not homogeneous. They enjoy the game for different reasons and are motivated to attend and spend part of their disposable income in very different ways. This is where segmentation, the first step of the marketing value chain, of the fan base comes in play.

Fan segmentation factors Various methods can be applied to segment fans into different categories. Harris & Elliott in the process of analysing the gym and fitness market deduced that the variables used to divide the market can be grouped in four main categories:  Behavioural  Demographic  Geographic  Psychographic These categories can be adapted in the football market as well.

Behavioural factors  Benefits sought  Product or service usage Every fan who walks out of his door to attend a match seeks to extract

something from that experience. For the vast majority of football fans that something is winning and/or entertainment. Some fans will be happy even after watching a match of dreadful quality as long as their team won. Others will do the opposite and enjoy a good quality match even if their club lost. For most fans however it is a combination of the two aspects with the weight each has depending on the individual fan’s preferences. Win seekers may totally alter their buying behaviour depending on the club’s success in the pitch while entertainment seekers may do the same depending on the players’ flair.

Apart from their ticket, several fans like to purchase other products and services prior, during and after the mach day’s main event, the game.

From shirts and caps to beers and match programmes a fan can spend money in various ways during their visit to the stadium. Of course football products and services are also available outside the match day context.

Nowadays fans have access to team specific boutique stores and can even buy viewing rights to a specific game.

Demographic factors A simple categorisation would be a demographic segmentation which consists of dividing the fans into groups based on variables such as:  Age  Gender  Income  Family lifecycle A club the bulk of whose fans are of growingly advanced age may face immeasurable problems in the future.

Unless appropriate research is conducted the club may not come to realise the extent of the problem until it

is too late.

Football fans are predominately male but in recent years the number of female spectators has been increasing.

If a club receives an extremely small percentage of its visits from females it needs to look into the reason for that and try find ways to penetrate the untapped female market. Sometimes the factors behind women not attending are overlooked my managers. A very common reason for example, at least in lower categories, is the absence of WCs for females in the stadiums.

Income is also an important factor. Imagine a club investing in constructing a number of luxury boxes aiming to increase its revenue but finds that there is no demand for them due to the fans finding them way too expensive for them. You cannot milk a cow unless it has milk.

A fans family lifecycle is also of outmost importance. As do buyers in any conventional marker, the vast majority of football fans vastly change their buying behaviour during their lifespan.

Geographic factors This categorization divides fans according to their geographical positioning. Distance may not necessarily affect a fan’s preference on which team to support but it definitely has an enormous effect on his/her attendance level. The closer a fan lives to the club’s stadium the more likely it is that he will attend matches and thus the more valuable he is to the club. It has been argued that the realistic catchment area of a football club includes the fans that live within a 90 minutes distance from the stadium.

Another geographic aspect is the tendency of fans to support teams which are based in their hometown even though they primary support another “bigger” club. These “second tier” fans are not as important as normal fans as they tend to spend the bulk of their football budget in their primary club and just leftovers for their hometown club. In many cases local clubs find themselves unable to attract fans due to that factor.

Psychographic factors Loyalty is the main factor here. Unlike conventional markers, the football industry can boast it has one of the most (if not the most) loyal customer bases.

The loyalty of football fans works in two distinct but very important ways:  Club loyalty: It prevents the fans from switching to other competitors in the same market (another club).  Football loyalty: It prevents the fans from switching to other services in the broader entertainment market (cinema, theatre etc).

3 Fan segmentation models Using one or several of the variables identified in the previous chapter above several segmentation models have been developed over the years.

Four of them will be discussed in this chapter.

3.1 The Stewart and Smith model Stewart and Smith after conducting research on Australian football developed a model to segment fans.

The model includes five non tiered categories based on psychographic and behavioural factors. More specifically it combines the loyalty and benefits sought variables.  Aficianado: The fan who seeks quality performance. He is loyal

to game and not a specific team.  Theatre goer: The fan who seeks entertainment and wants a close contest to maximise his enjoyment.  Passionate partisan: The fan who wants his team to win and identifies with team success and losses.  Champ follower: The fans that function as brand switchers based on pitch success.  Reclusive partisan: The fan who identifies strongly with the team, but does not often attend.

Pros  Makes a distinction between those fans that seek entertainment and those that seek quality performance.

Cons  The segments identified are too general to be practically of use to clubs.  The segments are not tiered whatsoever.

3.2 The match day behaviour model An important notion is the evolution of football fans’ match day behaviour during their lifespan.

Tapp and Clowes noted that and identified eight distinct stages through which a typical football fan goes through.  Mine’s a pint: Includes the fans that engage into social activity prior to the game. They typically arrive early and have a couple of beers, talk with other fans and read the programme.  Juggling the kids. Includes families who are trying to fit football in their heavy programme. They will typically arrive in the last minute but will usually spend a lot during the half time on merchandise and snacks.  Thermos at row D: Includes older people for whom attending the

matches is an old habit. They will typically arrive late and not spend much money.  Season ticket friendlies: Includes those who like to retain their seat and make friends with others who are doing the same.  Loyal cash and chanters: Includes those who buy a ticket when they get paid. They typically have a good shout at the game and may be what you call regular fans.  Dads and sons: Includes fathers taking their son to games in order to make them fans of their team.

They are typically quiet and “club” rather than “football” oriented.

When positioning the identified stages in a two axis chart, with level of attendance as the Y axis and life stage as the X axis, Tapp and Clowes ended up with the following model.

What this model effectively tells us is the story of a typical football fan, from his early days up to when he gets much older.

According to the model a fan’s attendance, and thus its financial contribution, is maximised in the latest stages of his life stage. The ups and downs in terms of attendance are important as they may reveal that changes in a club’s attendance levels may not be as related to the club’s performance as we may think.

Pros  Explains that fans behaviour is not static but constantly changes.  Includes the aspect of mach day behaviour.

Cons  The segments identified are not clearly tiered 3.3 The Tapp and Clowes matrix mod-

el A more complicated method of fan segmentation was suggested by Tapp and Clowes. This model is more sophisticated as it combines the variables used by the Stewart and Smith model and the Football insights model. In order to identify more niche markets this model uses a two-dimensional matrix instead of the one dimensional ladder model. The X axis measures the loyalty of the fan in terms of his commitment to the club and football in general. Fans belonging to groups placed on the right of the matrix are more diehard and them looking towards alternatives is considered highly unlikely.

On the left side we find more casual fans that are more prone to abandoning the club in favour of an alternative they evaluate as more attractive. The Y axis adds the depth related with the attitude of fans towards winning and entertainment. High places in the Y axis indicate fans favour entertainment over winning while low places indicate the opposite.

Picture 2: The Tapp and Clowes matrix Pros  The model takes the winning vs. entertainment aspect into account.  The segments identified are tiered across the X axis.

Cons  The segments identified may be considered too niche to be practically useful to clubs.  The segments identified are not clearly tiered in the Y axis.

The Football insights loyalty ladder model The Scottish fans loyalty ladder model

was adapted into the Scottish football industry by Football insights. The main idea of the model is to divide fans into groups according to their value to the club which is expressed by the frequency of their going to the stadium to support their club.

The model includes eight tiered categories based on predominantly psychographic factors. The geographic factor is also taken into account. More specifically the variables used are loyalty and distance. The higher a fan stands on the ladder the more loyal he is and therefore the more valuable he is considered.

Picture 3: The Scottish fans loyalty ladder Of course this ladder is far from exhaustive. The armchair fans for example could be further divided into multiple subcategories depending on how much value they have.

A fan you buys a premium TV package (e.g. Sky Sports) to watch his favourite team for example is a lot more valuable than one who just watches matches from his local pub. Increased demand for premium packages means that the channels will be willing to pay more for future TV deals, thus benefiting the club.

Pros  The model is clearly tiered making it straightforward and easy to understand.  Segments fans according to their importance to the club which is exactly what clubs are looking for.

Cons  The “Lapsed Lover” and “Historical Occasion” groups are overlapping a lot making it difficult for fans to distinguish.  The winning vs. entertainment

aspect is not taken into account.

Fan value evaluation The value each additional fan adds to a club can be expressed in two ways:  Support value  Atmosphere value  Monetary value Ask any football player or manager and he will stand for “the more support we get from the crowd, the better”. So, as far as the support value is concerned things are relatively simple: The more games a fan attends, the more support value he adds to the club. Of course not every fan gives a shout in the same frequency during the game so it could be argued that the fanatics who sing nonstop during the whole match have a higher support value than the rest.

The atmosphere value is also important. Fans that contribute in the creation of a friendly, healthy environment than makes attendants have a good time should be regarded as having higher value. Families are a typical example of a high atmosphere value group. When more and more football matches started being televised football marketers noticed that viewers disliked watching matches with low attendance. Empty stands decreased the TV value of the match. In the lights of that, they advised clubs to encourage fans to offer tickets in stands faced by the TV cameras in lower prices encouraging fans to prefer them. It is as if fans in those stands have a higher TV atmosphere value.

Putting monetary value in each of the identified groups could be trickier than one would expect. This derives from the dynamic pricing strategy football clubs use. Ticket prices vary depend-

ing on the seats position. Central stand seats are typically more expensive while seats in the arc stands located behind the goals are priced significantly lower. In some cases there are also special VIP stands and luxury boxes that are even more expensive.

Dynamic pricing creates cases where fans holding season tickets in one of the cheapest stands of the stadium end up contributing less to the club in monetary terms in comparison to other fans who, while attending only casually, buys tickets in a central, more expensive stands.

Things get even trickier when a fans lifetime value is being estimated. explained by the Tapp and Clowes match day behaviour model discussed in a previous section, fans behaviour changes over time in unpredictable ways.

How to get fans them to attend?

One of the most fundamental conditions a club has to meet in order to survive is to attract a reasonable number of fans. Yet few clubs have any specific strategy on how to pursue that goal. Instead they just expect fans to attend due to loyalty or on pitch success.

6.1 Distant Lovers Although distant lovers are considered to be a group which clubs can do little to reach, they could become an important source of income in certain cases.

A club should, through research, access the geographical positioning of its distant lovers and should there be a critical mass concentrated in a certain area act in order to benefit from them.

If a club finds out that it has a significant number of fans in a remote area it could organise a pre-season

friendly match with a local team and benefit from ticket and merchandise sales. And to think a little outside the box if the circumstances allow it the club could hire a number of buses to bring distant lovers to the stadium.

These could be available for just a few matches if not through the entire calendar depending on the number of lovers available in the area. I have heard of this technique being applied successfully in Spain by Real Sociedad and not only for a few games but for the entire season. A member of my family makes the trip regularly and says that the atmosphere in the bus is a significant plus to his overall mach day experience. Clubs must be careful though as if appropriate research has not been conducted, they may end up losing money in the process of attracting distant lovers.

Pros:  Allows fans who would otherwise face significant travelling costs to attend matches  Extracts profit from a previously untapped market  The atmosphere in the bus is an additional entertainment factor Cons:  Extra costs may overweight extra benefits should there be bad research  Still does not allow distant lovers with lack of free time to attend matches Children and families Marketing directly to children is a quick and efficient way a club can grow its fan base, fill the stadium, and at the same time create a future. Children as a target group have the unique advantage of getting what they want. If the club manages to get them interested,

they are bound to drag at least another person in the stadium (one of or both their parents).

Marketing directly to families is also very efficient. If clubs succeeds in reaching out to one member they get a group of customers which makes marketing to families more cost effective than marketing to individuals.  Focus your marketing on children, they will pester their parents.  Create areas within the stadium exclusively for families. It keeps them protected from vulgar activities that take place in some parts of the stands.  Increase pre match and half time activities (e.g. mascots, cheerleaders).  Give all children who attend low cost gifts (e.g. balloons).  Make sure the families and children get opportunities to take pictures with the players.  Offer families low season ticket prices.  Move the relationship with families from transactional to deep relational exchange for long term relationships.  Encourage families to refer and attract their family friends. Reward those who do so.  Make sure concessions that appeal to children are within easy reach.  Have club-family fun days with activities such as painting of faces, music. Anything that gives children and the family a fun filled day.

Conclusion As explained, in order for the clubs to implement a successful marketing strategy they must start by segmenting

their fan base. The Football insights loyalty ladder model can be used as the basis for the segmentation. The other three models can be used in the case of the clubs needing information on one of the variables which are not explained by the loyalty ladder model (e.g. winning vs. entertainment vs. quality, match day behaviour).

A good way by which clubs can acquire the information needed for the segmentation of the fan base is the issue of member cards used for all interactions with the club. After establishing a line with their fans, clubs need to maintain information flowing not only from the fans to the club but also the other way around. This will strengthen the bond between the club and its fans apart from keeping the club informed on trend developing on its fan base.

Only by applying FRM can the clubs maintain demand for their product high and reassure their financial survival in the long term.

Bibliography Adamson, G., Jones, W., & Tapp, A. (2005). From CRM to FRM: Applying CRM in the football industry. Journal of Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management , 13 (2), 156172.

Goodwin, P. (2012). Saving Scottish Football: What we need to do next.

Tangent Books.

Harris, K., & Elliott, D. (2007). Segmentation, targeting and positioning in Sport. In J. Beech, & S. Chadwick, The Marketing of Sport (pp. 123-142).

Harlow: Pearson Education.

Sebbale, R. K. (2011). Retrieved 1 5, 2013, from FootballMarketing: http:// www.footballmarketing.biz/ Tapp, A., & Clowes, J. (2002). From

“carefree casuals” to “professional wanderers”: Segmentation possibilities for football supporters. European Journal of Marketing , 36 (11/12), 1248-1269.

How FANS AFFECT FOOTBALL by jo welford

What do football supporters think about how Scottish football is run and governed? How are they getting involved themselves, and to what benefit? How can fans affect football in Scotland? The FREE project is trying to give some answers to these questions by speaking to fans across the country about football.

The FREE (Football Research in an Enlarged Europe) project is a pan-European study, funded by the European Commission’s 7th European Framework Programme for Research (FP7), investigating what football means to fans across the continent. Eight countries are working together on the project, and in the UK the project is specifically investigating the relationship between fans and the governance structures of football. By ‘football governance’ we mean anything to do with how the game is run, managed and organised at club, national and international level. We are asking: • Are fans getting involved in governance themselves?

• Why, and if not, why not?

• What are the benefits of getting involved in football governance for fans?

• How can clubs benefit from fan involvement?

• What do supporters think about fan ownership?

• How could football governance be improved?

Fans of Scottish clubs were asked to take photographs and keep diaries over a 4-6 week period in the 201314 season to a) show what football means to them; b) demonstrate the extent of their involvement in football; and c) comment on aspects of football governance as they arose. We

then met up with them and chatted about what they had submitted, and discussed fan involvement in governance in more depth.

This is what fans had to say.

What does football mean to fans?

Before thinking about how fans CAN affect football, it is important to consider WHY fans might even want to.

Trying to understand why and how fans connect with football and their clubs reveals the strength of their attachment, both to their individual clubs and to the game more widely. Although this may seem obvious, policy calls for fans to get more involved in governance will only work if they actually want to. The passion they have for their club and the wider game should be seen as a sound basis for developing fan engagement in football governance.

Without a doubt, football plays a major role in the lives of all fans in the study. All watched live matches whenever they could – for those that lived away from their clubs, this meant a lot of travelling combined with watching other local teams to get their ‘fix’. They also played, coached, volunteered and spoke about football in their free time.

“Only my wife and immediate family mean more to me than football. Indeed my wife might say the football means more to me” AJ Through discussing football, three main aspects of ‘being a fan’ emerged as key reasons for their continued support. Firstly, football is a social event. The social dimension of football is just as, and maybe even more,

important for supporters than what happens on the pitch over 90 minutes.

It is a way to be together with other people, something to be enjoyed and shared. Fans described how matches provide an excuse to catch up and spend valuable time with family and friends, particularly activities before and after the game. Fathers spend time with their sons (and daughters); friends who live miles apart meet up in the pub before the match; the extended family come together for an away trip. All of this happens because of the football match – it is the focus of the day – but it is the ‘everything else’ that fans spoke to us about more than the match itself.

“I think for me probably looking back on it, football is, the most social thing that you can do, in Scotland certainly… Football can bring a family together, and be a focal point for them” MM “To me it’s the family, it’s the tradition, it’s everything. There’s also the coming together before the game and after the game, you know” IJD Understanding that ‘football’ is to fans about much more than watching 22 people running around chasing a ball for 90 minutes should encourage clubs to look at the ‘fan experience’ more closely, an issue that will be returned to later in the chapter.

Secondly, football clubs are an important part of fans personal identities.

They tie them to a home, a community, family and personal histories. All fans spoke about their memories of football as a child – positive memories that had stayed with them throughout their lives. Football is a facilitator of this.

Being a fan of a football club makes you a part of that club, that community,

and can bring an enormous sense of pride and belonging: something that was described by fans regardless of the size of their club.

“The whole football thing is about the relationship with my dad. Particularly like, he worked away a lot during the weeks and then weekends were kind of like our kind of special time, which was really nice. Whenever I’m up we go to every home game, we go to any like under 20s or anything game that is there as well” ER “[You have] a connection with the club, not just emotional and the almost tribal sense of identity that you get at some of the bigger clubs but in these smaller clubs, there is also a sense of personal connection with the club where you are a devoted fan” MM This connection, and the feeling of community, is vital when considering the potential for fans to involve themselves in governance. If the community aspect is an important part of their club identity, this clearly works in favour of community ownership and involvement. If fans feel part of a community, which they often do (particularly at smaller clubs where this is one of the main features of fandom), they may be willing to help preserve this.

Thirdly, and perhaps considered as common-sense and therefore rarely acknowledged, is how football makes fans happy. Of course, football also brings disappointment, anxiety and even anger; fans acknowledge that they do not have an easy life! But these can be forgotten. Happiness – the buzz of beating a local rival, a last minute equaliser, hearing the crowd roar – is what fans take from football, and what keeps them going back for

more.

“A feeling of being part of a crowd like that is probably the best thing, the big sort of dramatic emotional kind of atmosphere moments, you know, those kind of things are, are the best bits about going to the football” MM Football is, on the whole, a positive experience for fans. We believe it is important to stress this, as policy makers often focus on the negative aspects of football, what is ‘wrong’ with it. There is no denying that there are a large number of problems associated with modern football – the fans talked about these at great length, as explained further below – but to ignore the positivity and happiness that football can mean to fans overlooks one of the greatest things about football. Again, the way happiness was stressed to us by fans demonstrates the importance of their club to them, and may give them motivation to help to maintain this.

What do fans think about football governance?

Fans unquestioningly showed us that football means a great deal to them, and is a hugely gratifying part of their lives. All contributions on a personal level revealed positivity and satisfaction. But once discussions moved outside of the personal level to the wider world of football governance, fans were much more critical.

Dissatisfaction with football governance is widespread amongst fans, and is no secret. It is therefore unsurprising that fans who took part in the FREE project took the opportunity to give their opinion on a number of dif-

ferent aspects of football governance in Scotland. This does not override the love fans stressed that they have for the game and their clubs, but creates a difficult and contradictory position for fans. On the one hand, their club makes them happy, match-days are social events that they look forward to and they take pride in their club. Yet balanced with this, aspects of their club’s (and wider football) governance frustrate and anger them.

The most common theme across all fan contributions to the FREE project is money. It did not matter if their club was big or small, or if they were talking about their own experiences or football in general, financial issues cropped up time and time again making it the single biggest concern fans had with football governance. It is impossible to discuss money without acknowledging the cause and the many effects that it has on all levels of the game. From the cost of watching football to the individual fan to the distribution of TV income, money permeates football from the bottom to the top and was at the root of many of their concerns. Due to its centrality in fans’ thoughts, the issue of money will not be discussed further as a topic in its own right but will be acknowledged as inherent to many of the problems that fans chose to highlight.

At the club level, ownership was a particularly difficult issue for fans.

Concerns were raised over the Fit and Proper test, the lack of transparency, the ease in which clubs can be bought and sold, and financial corruption and mismanagement. The rich owners who buy up clubs were also criticised, with concern that they do not have a connection with the club and therefore

cannot be relied upon.

be the same.” IJD

“You can’t rely on oligarchs, because people like that could just turn round and go, do you know what … because they operate on a totally different level, you know, there’s no emotional connection to it” AM

“I think if we could, obviously it would be great if we could create a proper standing area” JG

A topical issue throughout the UK right now is the notion of integrating safe standing areas into all-seater stadia. Although not all wanted to stand themselves, fans were all in favour of a standing area to give a choice of sitting or standing. Reasons for this support revolved mostly around the impact on atmosphere. ‘Standing area’ appears to be synonymous with ‘singing area’, and fans believe that a move to safe standing would enhance the atmosphere in grounds, something believed to be key for the enjoyment of the match-day and attracting more fans to the stadium.

“I think they should have standing sections. But there are some people who want to sit. There are like, I said earlier the [group] who never sit, they just, they bounce non-stop and they sing and they chant and they’ve got the guy in the front with the big drum.

I think they should be allowed, there should be a standing only section … you go to a rock concert, how often do you sit down? You pay for a seat, you’ll sit, at the beginning you’ll sit, if there’s an interval, at the end, but other than that you’re up and you’re standing and you’re clapping and you’re boogying … And no one says this is bad news, no one comes in and arrests you for, because you’re standing, they don’t have stewards who say this must sit, they’ve got stewards but they don’t say you must sit. I think football should

The safe standing campaign is irrefutably linked to issues of fan regulation and control. Fans spoke fondly of their experiences at smaller, lower league grounds where they could stand and move around, free from the restrictive nature of all-seater stadia. Fans feel they should be treated with more respect; although there are many aspects of this, being given the choice to sit or stand at a football match would indicate a greater level of freedom, and this is something that is important to them.

Fans were also critical of the lack of fan involvement, consultation and engagement by clubs and authorities.

Smaller clubs were more often than not commended for attempts to build relationships with their fan base, but the bigger clubs were criticised for not being transparent or considering the needs of the fan.

“Directors must give fans more say in the running of [club], they must have more transparency in the workings and they must spell out their plans for the club” IJD However the most vocal criticism was for the football authorities outside of the club.

“I honestly believe that Scottish football authorities have absolutely no regard or thought for the ordinary fan.

Unless the hierarchy at a national level and at club level change their attitudes towards those who make this

great game of football what it is, then I fear for the future of the game. Yes, television pours an amazing amount of money at football, but if there’s no fan participation then there is no atmosphere at games and that would signal the death of football completely” IJD Fans unanimously expressed dissatisfaction with several aspects of football governance, and a number believed that fans should be better consulted.

This leads us to ask, are fans getting involved themselves in football governance to try and affect change? If so, how, why, and what are the benefits to fans and clubs?

Fans and their involvement in football governance Fans told us that they were unhappy with football governance at a number of levels. Combined with their obvious passion for their clubs and the game of football, this suggests the potential for increased fan involvement.

Joining and making a financial contribution a Supporters Trust, and therefore working towards supporter ownership (either full or in part) of their club, is one way that fans can get involved in governance. Yet as this is not the only way – many clubs have fan forums, councils, supporter groups, and other associations that have a degree of interaction with their club – this section will consider the benefits of fan involvement in any aspect of governance. Whilst Trusts have been essential in keeping many Scottish clubs afloat, it is important not to exclude fans that are not in the position to contribute financially.

There are a number of questions that are vital to understanding more about how fans can affect football.

• Why should fans get involved in governance?

Although not all felt that they were in the position at this moment in time to become more actively involved, all believed that fans should have a greater involvement and representation in football governance: to enhance their own experience AND to contribute, even if in a small way, to affecting change in football. Some fans may be happy paying their money through the turnstile, watching their team, and returning home again, with no further involvement in their club. This is perfectly understandable. But if fans are unhappy with football governance, engaging with their club where possible is a step to affecting change. Fans in our study understood this.

“If you just want to be in the background and take what’s thrown at you, you pay your money and you go and see games on a game by game basis. And if that’s all you want, accept what’s thrown at you” IJD Getting fans involved themselves in governance is to most a natural progression from the dissatisfaction highlighted in the previous section. But it was also recognised that although many fans only consider getting involved with their club during times of crisis, this reactive move may be more successful if it was instead proactive – if fans did not wait for something to go wrong at their club to get involved, either on or off the pitch.

“There’s years and years and years and years of apathy and people just turning up, saying, well you know things are going good on the pitch and all the money’s there and enjoy it” AM There is no doubt that fans feel they should be more involved in governance, to represent their needs and

wishes at club level. Fan consultation (or lack of) is of high importance, and was widely considered as something they would like to see addressed.

• Why do fans get involved in their clubs?

Whist there are a number of reasons why fans should get involved in governance, not all do. But for those that do, understanding why can be useful to clubs and other supporters. As suggested above, fans tend to get involved in governance when they are dissatisfied with things that are happening at their club.

“I became frustrated when it became obvious that the club was being dreadfully mismanaged. And I became further frustrated, not just at the thought that at the time I was going to lose the club but I became frustrated with the fans’ reaction and particularly the factions that were growing” JG But there is another side to getting involved, which may be alongside dissatisfaction, but can equally be a reason for a fan that is happy to get involved: to give back to something that gives you pleasure.

“I like it, try to invest in the place you live and everything you take part in and I don’t just turn up, pay my money, get pissed off for an hour and a half and then go home” AM “I would like to contribute more. I’ve always been a doer. You get out of something what you put in” IJD The reasons fans gave for their involvement in governance therefore fell into two areas: dissatisfaction with aspects of their club, or a more personal desire to contribute. Acknowledging these contrasting motivations is useful as the latter category encom-

passes all fans from all clubs – everybody can relate to this. However the former only applies to fans that either acknowledge or recognise a personal dissatisfaction, which may not be relevant to many. Indeed, even at clubs with governance problems, there may be fans that do not recognise these or consider this important to them. In attempting to encourage supporters to engage with clubs, focussing on the personal motivation to ‘give back’ to their club may therefore be more effective than waiting until a time of crisis where dissatisfaction is more widespread.

• Why don’t they get involved?

Equally as important as why fans do get involved, is the issue of why they don’t. Again, having knowledge of the reasons fans do not get involved is essential to increasing the numbers that do. Are these barriers real, or perceived? Are fans aware of the benefits of getting involved in governance, for both them and their clubs?

Some of the fans in the FREE study were not involved in governance, despite having a great passion for their club. One reason was not living in the locality – living away from their club can detach a fan from what is happening, they may feel that they cannot contribute fully by not being there, or they may feel that they may not get ‘value’ for the fees involved if they are not around to attend activities or meetings. Others would argue that this is simply a perceived barrier, as some fans who were Trust or other group members did this despite not living close to their club. Further, some thought that they did not have enough time to become involved in governance – again a problem that could be very real, or could be challenged by asserting that a contribution can still

be made without a significant time investment.

• What are the benefits of fan involvement to fans?

In order to engage more fans in governance, it is important to understand and promote the benefits gained, both to fans (individually and as a collective) and to the clubs. Fans who were involved in football governance were quick to stress the personal benefits they gained from this. A feeling of contributing to your club’s success, of giving back, and feeling more involved and connected to the club were important reasons suggested to us.

“I enjoy the games more now, because I’m more interested in the club overall, I’m more interested in the games.

And I actually sit at [ground] now and feel a lot more pride in what’s going on because when [previous owner] was running the club, you really didn’t get that feeling” JG An increased awareness of the benefits to fans personally might be critical in helping to engage more fans. Supporter groups could use these cited benefits as a way of encouraging fans to get involved, growing their membership and therefore their influence.

As well as personal benefits, fans who get involved in governance themselves can also help to ensure that other fans can have their voices heard within the club. One aspect of football that fans feel particularly frustrated with is that they don’t feel their voice is heard. Getting involved themselves, whilst not ensuring that the fan voice is heard, represents a big step towards this.

“I have the opportunity to advance the involvement of fans in how the interests of fans is best served, and that their club would listen if approached in a reasonable manner” AJ “We [supporters group] want to give all of the fans a genuine voice … We had a fan survey where we went out to people and said give us ideas of what you would like the club to do, and we had 153 responses and over 200 ideas and we’ve gradually been putting those ideas into effect” JG • What are the benefits of fan involvement to the club?

Aside from the obvious benefit of financial contributions (although being involved in governance does not necessarily require the fan to donate money), there are numerous ways in which football clubs can benefit from involving fans in decision-making and other aspects of governance. One fan recognised that the benefits of being involved in governance for him were two-fold: “Because of my love of football I have used it to benefit not only myself, but to help in many ways to improve the game and facilities for others” AJ Clubs can benefit from increased numbers of fans becoming involved behind the scenes – they can represent and promote the club, and become an important source of help to the club if they are made to feel a part of it and valued.

“We’re offering people the opportunity to be club ambassadors, and that’s really just a way to get people more engaged and also get the club free staff, free volunteers” AJ This is important as it shows that clubs should not fear fan engagement – supporters have the best interests of

their club at heart, always, and many will do all they can to help out. Whilst ‘free staff’ may not be the best way to describe fans willing to give up their time to help out, fans who were involved definitely gave the impression that being involved in governance at your club can be a give and take relationship: as well as benefiting from any changes that help fans, keeping your club afloat or simply helping out on a match-day can bring an immense source of personal and community pride as well as being vital to the dayto-day running – and even survival – of the football club.

Supporter ownership and Supporters Trusts Whilst all of the above can relate to Supporter Trusts as equally as any other method of fan engagement, the notion of supporter ownership deserves individual consideration due to the importance of Trusts to the continued survival of many Scottish football clubs.

As perhaps evident from this chapter so far, fans were unanimously in favour of supporter ownership – not necessarily wanting fans to have full control, but to have an official, formal say in the running of the club and board representation as a minimum. “[Club is] partly fan owned from the kind of 1990s, that we were kind of in some financial difficulties and about to fold, so we do have some representation of supporters that are on the board, which is really good” ER However fans understood that the supporter ownership model was not a smooth ride to success, and recognised some of the difficulties clubs and

fan organisations face. Firstly, and arguably the most critical question for Trusts, is how to act in the interests of all fans – fans who have divergent opinions, experiences and hopes for the future of their club.

“Football supporters are such a divergent bunch. But I think they’re … we get this from the Trust as well incidentally, you know, half the people are wanting you to be hammering the club much harder, the other half don’t want you to be criticising them at all” JBE Following on from this is the concern of how to engage the RIGHT fans in governance. Whilst this may be exclusionary in a sense, supporters expressed concerns over whether fans could fulful the roles required to run a football club.

“Just because you’re passionate and it’s your life and you’re myopic, doesn’t make you a good manager or natural diplomat” AM Trusts must also follow their own advice concerning transparency, fairness and representation, even If this can create difficulties with the club.

“In these situations, the fans have to be front and centre of what’s going on. You have to be transparent, so it’s always, the lack of transparency that kills the Trust” JBE “I also think that there is increasingly an anti-Trust mentality at clubs, that they tend to see them in a very kind of adversarial way. We’ve had quite a lot of flack about saying critical things about the ownership” JBE Discussions surrounding supporter ownership were very interesting. De-

spite a wide and strong criticism of existing governance structures in football, and a unswerving belief that supporters should be more involved in governance at club level (and perhaps beyond), the fans who took part in this study recognised that this was not a quick fix answer to problems in football, and needed to be done properly to be a better alternative to the status quo. Football fans are passionate about their club, and this comes first.

This should be considered an encouraging conclusion, as fans are not only in favour of increased supporter involvement in football governance but they are in favour of doing it the right way, with caution and an understanding of the potential barriers that need to be overcome.

Ticket pricing by graeme taylor

Introduction Ticket pricing is an area of major concern to Scottish football as it directly impacts on the appeal and finances of the game; both very important factors if we want to progress Scottish football in line with other European nations.

Football has become a global game and plays a significant role in the cultural and economic landscape of countries around the world. In January 2013, Deloitte’s estimated that the revenue generated by Europe’s top 20 revenue generating clubs alone would be worth over €5 billion in 2012/13 , therefore further highlighting the economic power that football has; especially during a period of global economic downturn from which football looks to have emerged relatively unscathed. That is, of course, until you scratch beneath the surface and look beyond Europe’s top 5 leagues where there has been a massive change in financing of the beautiful game in recent years; moving from gate revenue to commercial and broadcasting revenue as the main sources of income for clubs (Deloitte 2012a, 2012b) . In 2012, Deloitte valued broadcasting revenue throughout Europe to be worth over €4.1 billion per season, and constitute the principal revenue stream for the top ranked club in four out of the ‘big five’ leagues; the exception being found in Germany where Bayern Munich’s commercial income was pre-eminent (Ibid).

Unfortunately, the SPFL Premiership is not classed as one of the big 5 European football leagues and has been unable to follow in their financial footprints; instead it still relies heavily upon ticket revenue, and therefore

the fans, to provide its member clubs with their main source of income (PwC, 2011, 2013) . The Scottish Premiership, under the guise of the SPL, did however make one attempt to change this scenario when it brokered the ill-fated broadcasting contract with Setanta in 2008. This deal, the biggest in Scottish football history, was due to be worth £125million over 4 years and £31million per season for the league; this represented a rise of over 100% from the previous contract. As is well documented, this contract was not fulfilled due to the collapse of Setanta and with their demise seemingly went Scottish football’s chance to enhance its finance muscle. The game has never quite recovered from this catastrophe in a financial sense, hence the continued reliance on ticket revenue for club financing.

From a historical point of view, Vamplew (1988) and Buraimo, Simmons, and Szymanski (2006) point out that from the very beginning of the game that we now call football, there has been a consistent and acute awareness of the ability to generate income through the sale of tickets to watch live football games. PwC (2011, 2013) confirms that Scottish football has not progressed from this position with ticket sales revenue remaining as the main income source for Scottish football. They further add that should this trend continue, the knock on effect will result in a dilution of revenue into the Scottish game which will create a ripple effect as clubs will be forced to further cut their budgets, reduce wages and player numbers, and reduce spending on youth development as there will simply not be the money in the game to sustain it at its current level. With this in mind, it

therefore becomes imperative that Chairmen and Chief Executives of SPFL Premiership clubs reconsider their current pricing strategies in order to attract more fans back to the game and therefore generate more income for their clubs. This paper aims to take a look at issues facing ticket pricing in Scottish top-flight football and will suggest possible approaches and initiatives that may result in clubs being able to increase their revenue generating capabilities through increased ticket sales.

Where are the Fans?

As highlighted above, the main revenue stream for Scottish Premiership clubs comes through the fans, with ticket revenue providing the greatest source of income.

With that in mind it seems logical that all clubs should be doing their utmost to attract as many fans to home games as possible in order to boost their gate revenue.

However, Table 1 identifies that in seasons 2011/12 and 2012/13 SPL stadia were, on average, less than two thirds full on match days.

The table also shows an 8% decrease in the average number of occupied seats at SPL grounds across the season.

While the drop in attendance and percentage of seats occupied per game can, in part, be put down to Rangers no longer playing in the top flight, it still presents a worrying statistic that needs to be addressed. On a club-by-club basis, Kilmarnock registered the lowest average percentage of occupied seats per game in both seasons , Rangers registered the highest seat occupancy in 2011/12 , Celtic registered the highest seat occupancy in 2012/13 , with Hearts the top non-Old Firm side in both

seasons . Finally, in 2011/12 6 SPL clubs failed to record an average seat occupancy of 50% for the season, and in 2012/13 the number of teams failing to reach this figure was 5. In short, SPL (now SPFL Premiership) clubs are failing massively to maximise their gate revenue generating potential.

Lost Revenue The result of Premiership stadiums more often than not lying half empty on a match day, can be represented through the huge loss in potential revenue for most teams in the league. With the exception of Celtic and Hearts, no other current SPFL Premiership club has managed to achieve an average of 75% occupancy in the last two seasons with four clubs having fallen below 50% seat occupancy in both seasons; the most surprising of which being Motherwell given their impressive league performances. From a financial perspective, this equates to a lost opportunity to maximise much needed income which can be used to stabilise and improve clubs. From a fans perspective, the thought of turning up at a half-empty stadium is not always the most appealing, and from a broadcasting standpoint, there is very little to sell and promote when grounds are empty and lacking in atmosphere. As a direct result of fans staying away from the ground – for whatever reason – it is obvious that their actions are costing the game money. In order to redress this situation, clubs must look at ways of attracting fans back into the game therefore bringing more money, atmosphere, and appeal back to the game at the same time.

Due to the different price structures in place throughout the

Premiership and the unknown demographics that the ‘lost’ fans would fall into, it is impossible to place a definitive figure on the financial losses incurred through the empty seats. It is has however been possible to estimate these losses through use of the BBC’s annual Price of Football Surveys.

Table 2 represents an average potential income and ‘lost’ revenue per game week for the SPL from 2012/13 using the ticket pricing data provided by the BBC Sport survey in relation to the average number of seats sold (and unsold) over the course of the season.

The table does not include data from Hibernian, who did not provide ticket price details for the BBC survey, and therefore acts only as a guide, estimating potential lost revenue. Celtic’s data has also been treated independently due to Celtic Park’s capacity far outstripping any other stadium in the league and therefore skewing data for the SPL as a whole.

Although not absolute in terms of holding data from each SPL club from 2012/13, Table 2 does highlight the vast sums of revenue lost to the league as a whole on a weekly basis due to unsold match tickets; the losses would undoubtedly be greater if Hibs were included as they only managed to sell an average of 51% of seats per game. The table also presumes that all match tickets sold are at the same price, this scenario could not happen in reality due to concessionary rates lowering ticket prices and more expensive executive seats being on offer.

Although this would affect the results of Table 2, it is most likely that the impact would be adverse rather than positive; therefore Table 2, despite the poor figures on show, may be painting a positive

picture in terms of ‘lost’ gate revenue. A club by club breakdown can be found in appendix 1.

In conjunction to the obvious loss of income from unsold match tickets, a further source of lost revenue to the game, can be found with respect to sales generated around the match day experience; this includes sales of pie’s, bovril’s, tea and coffee, match day programmes, and sales at the stadium club shop. It is difficult to put an accurate quantifiable figure on this ‘lost’ revenue as each individuals spend on these products will differ from game to game, with some fans not purchasing any of the above items. In order to attempt to quantify this revenue stream, it has been necessary to make a presumption that each fan attending a football match will buy will one pie, tea, and match programme; the cost of each item for each club being available via the BBC Sport Price of Football Survey 2012. Table 3 provides an insight into the potential lost revenue from stadium spend on a match day for season 2012/13 and shows that clubs could be losing out on circa £46,000 of additional stadium spend per home game from the ‘missing fans’.

This figure is based on clubs selling out their stadiums on a match day therefore provides only an indication of the levels of income that could be generated. While it may represent an unrealistic target, if does highlight the scope for increased revenue generation through the sale of additional tickets and its knock-on effects.

Cost of Attending SPFL As has already been identified, the average attendance at SPL (now SPFL Premiership) grounds has fallen in recent years, thus

impacting on clubs revenue generating capabilities. From a fans perspective, one of the most important factors in determining whether or not you buy a ticket and take the ride of supporting your club week in week out is the price of a match ticket: even more so than in the current financial climate where football fans, like everyone else, are counting their pennies and reducing unnecessary expenses. With that in mind, further analysis of the BBC Sport Price of Football Survey 2013 provides interesting reading. In a time when clubs ought to be making attending a match a more appealing prospect for fans and as inexpensive as possible, it is perhaps surprising to note that none of the nine clubs who competed in both the 2011/12 and 2012/13 SPL season’s, and gave information to the BBC survey, lowered the price of their cheapest adult match ticket ; in fact 4 clubs increased the cost of their cheapest ticket. On the other hand, 4 clubs did lower the price of their most expensive ticket, therefore helping to make attending matches more affordable; only St. Johnstone raised the cost of both their cheapest and most expensive tickets. There were further price increases across the board for items identified above as ‘stadium spend’ with only Inverness Caledonian Thistle and St. Mirren reducing the overall cost of the cheapest match day for their fans; the reductions were £1.40 and 5p respectively. Dundee United posted the largest single increase in cost for the cheapest day out at Tannadice with fans having to fork out an extra £3.80 for a ticket, pie, tea, and programme. The cost of the most expensive day out in the SPL fell at 5 clubs with Celtic offering the largest saving

of £10.20, but rose at 4 clubs with St. Johnstone charging a further £3.60 to enjoy the match day experience at McDiarmid Park in 2012/13.

Tables 4.1 and 4.2 provide an overview of the price of top-flight football in Scotland with Table 4.1 showing that the cost of the cheapest ticket and day out at the football rose over the two seasons reviewed. However, it also suggests that the cost of the most expensive ticket and day fell over the same period. Table 4.2 is slightly more worrying as its data does not include Celtic, and is only concerned with the rest of the league. Although marginal, it does show that there was an increase in price of attending football in Scotland in 2012/13, with the average price of the cheapest ticket increasing by 63p. This rise may seem inconsequential but, with the backdrop of falling attendances, it does seem to be a strange call that any club would raise their ticket prices when they should be looking to attact more fans to the game.

Initatives to get fans back So, what can be done to get the fans back into the grounds? Well, there are a number of options available to clubs, most of which have been trialled elsewhere with degrees of success. The following provides a sample of possible initiatives and is in no way an exhaustive list; 1.

Lower Ticket Prices; 2.

Offer Free Tickets to Season Ticket Holders; 3.

Kids Go Free; 4.

Pay What You Want; 5.

Consultation with Fan Groups Over Ticket Pricing

Lower Ticket Prices Lowering ticket prices is probably the most appealing option for fans, especially casual fans who may be tempted back to the game by the prospect of a lower outlay to watch the game live. In today’s difficult financial climate, the prospect of paying less money to watch the same entertainment product that was previously too expensive may result in increased turn out and attendance; therefore this option may not only see attendances rise, but also result in increased gate revenue, and stadium spend. The implication of stadium spend is an important factor to consider with respect to lowering ticket prices as, although there is the possibility of decreasing gate revenue, with more fans in the ground there is the opportunity to increase stadium spend and revenue. Once within the stadium boundaries fans are a captive market and it is up to the clubs to maximise their revenue potential. A potential benefit of lowering prices is that it is highly unlikely to adversely affect attendance figures; paying a lower price is far more likely to attract fans than detract them. Therefore, at worst, it could be expected that attendances would remain the same. That of course provides a drawback to lowering prices as, in order for this initiative to work for fans and the clubs, the clubs must be pulling in the same revenue as before. A break-even analysis would allow clubs to see just how many additional fans are needed to make any price reduction worthwhile. Research carried out for this paper suggests that for 7 out of the 11 clubs who provided data for the BBC Sport Price of Football Survey 2013, that an extra 500 fans on top of their normal

average attendance would see them generate at least as much match day revenue as with their 2012/13 prices. The importance of increased stadium spend in achieving this outcome cannot be under-estimated as, by attracting more fans into the ground through the lower prices, the clubs have automatically increased their stadium spend revenue generating capabilities.

One thing that cannot be guaranteed is that more fans will attend games. Nothing, has the same affect on drawing more fans than cup final and semi-final appearances, however it is from the often large increase in ticket uptake for these spectacles that it can be confidently presumed that most SPFL Premiership clubs have a larger fan base than their average attendance would suggest.

Therefore although lowering ticket prices is not a perfect solution to increasing attendances and revenue, it does provide an attractive incentive to the otherwise ‘gloryfan’ to attend on a more frequent basis. Perhaps such an initiative would be best suited to a chosen game or series of games as a trial, rather than a blanket reduction for the season; regardless of the final approach, if this initiative is taken up, then it is up to the clubs to keep the ‘new’ fans coming back in the long run.

Free/Reduced Price Tickets to Season Ticket Holders As most clubs are struggling to sell even 50% of their tickets for games, it may be worthwhile considering offering free, or reduced priced tickets to season ticket holders in a bid to boost attendances and match day

revenue. Such a scheme would involve offering season ticket holders with the opportunity to buy additional tickets – for friends, family, etc. – at reduced prices for selected games throughout the season. Alternatively, clubs could offer season tickets 1 or 2 extra tickets at no charge, while tickets are available, for selected games. Such an initiative would have a likely outcome of increasing attendances at the selected promotional games and therefore enhancing the clubs match day revenue through increased ticket sales (albeit at reduced prices), increased stadium spend, or increases in both. An initiative like this could conceivably see a massive spike in attendance if the correct game is chosen, and while match attendance would fall after the promotion, it provides clubs with an opportunity to ‘hook’ fans in once again. It may also provide evidence that the fans are there but are just unwilling to pay the current ticket price. If such a promotion has a high uptake, then perhaps a re-evaluation of ticket pricing may be needed. Celtic have trialled such a scheme by offering season ticket holders up to 2 free tickets for the Glasgow Derby against Partick Thistle on January 1st, 2014. 52,670 fans attended that game, an increase of circa 6,000 fans on the season’s average attendance. While the scheme would not have increased ticket revenue, it would have led to an increase in stadium spend for that game. While it cannot be guaranteed that an initiative offering discounted tickets would have had the same interest, it does provide suggest that such an offer may attract additional fans to the game; and, after all, isn’t that what we all want?

Kids Go Free Many clubs already operate a ‘Kids Go Free’ scheme however it may be a positive initiative for the SPFL to introduce the scheme across all clubs in the Premiership as a way of increasing attendances and interest in the game.

While this initiative will not bring in any extra revenue from the sale of child tickets, it may lead to an increase in adult ticket sales accompanying the children. Furthermore, as with the other initiatives, ‘Kids Go Free’ would lead to the potential for increased stadium spend and may also lead to more families coming to the games.

The current level of ticket prices may be pricing families out of the game and any initiative geared at encouraging families into returning to the game would only be a good thing; making a family day out at the family a cheaper proposition would only add to the match day atmosphere and would introduce the next generation of fans to the game.

Pay What You Want An initiative spearheaded by League 2 side Albion Rovers that could work higher up the league system. Rovers trialled ‘Pay What You Want’ against Montrose on the 11th of January, 2014 with the initiative proving to be a massive success. The club saw a crowd increase of 125%, gate receipt increase of 160%, and café/shop/ add-ons increase of 165%. Albion’s ‘Pay What You Want’ day saw fans have to pay a minimum entry fee of £1; while it may not be financially beneficial for Premiership clubs to charge as little as a £1 entry, the initiative could be tweaked to make it more suitable for the clubs. A £5 or £10 mini-

mum fee may be more acceptable and would still be lower than the current price structure, therefore passing a saving on to the fans.

Such an initiative acts as a driver to attract otherwise disengaged fans back to the game and may see a percentage of those fans return on a more regular basis.

Consultation with Fan Groups Perhaps this is the most obvious solution to any concerns regards ticket pricing as, after all, it is the fans who are buying tickets. By consulting with fan groups, clubs would gain a better insight into what price fans are prepared to pay to watch their team. It also gives fans more of a say in the running of their clubs and therefore makes them feel more of a part of the decision making process, rather than constantly being dictated to. If clubs can agree upon pricing strategies with the fans then it provides a greater possibility of fans buying tickets and attending matches as there will be unilateral agreement of ticket prices.

While none of the above initiatives can guarantee increased ticket sales, attendance, or revenue, they do serve to provide food for thought and possible solutions to the current problem of half-empty stadia.