Following requests from members at an AGM and the wider fan body, Leeds United Supporters Trust (LUFC Trust) commenced an 'Initiative' to examine what parents who wish to take their children to matches at Elland Road would consider a 'fair and reasonable' amount to pay for either a child’s Season or Match Day Ticket in order to support a team in the second tier of English football.

The questions were kept simple and short so that people would not be put off by the survey's length and complexity. It was agreed that the survey should be completed 'on line' using the Trusts own website at lufctrust.org and that it should run until the end of September so that preliminary results and analysis might be available for the forthcoming AGM and the preceding Directors meeting in early October 2006.

A Press Release was prepared and the Survey received some degree of exposure in the local newspapers, this received wider publicity on the various Fans Forums.

Survey Results
By the end of September there had been some 320 entries received, the results of which are as follows:

Question 1 - Current Pricing

Do you consider the current prices for children charged by the club as being too expensive?

a) Yes 89%
b) No 11%

Question 2 - Season Tickets

If you answered 'Yes' to Question 1 what do you consider being a 'fair and reasonable' cheapest price to pay for an Under 16's Season Ticket in the Championship?

Note: It should be noted that for analysis sake where people had voted 'No' to Question 1 then we assumed that they then considered the current pricing structure for both season and match day tickets acceptable. (We realised that we should have allowed all responders to answer questions 2 and 3!!)

a) Below £150 per season       48%
b) £150 - £175 per season      29%
c) £175 - £200 per season        9%
d) £200 - £225 per season      13%
e) £225 - £250 per season        1%
f) More than £250 per season   0%

The average 'fair and acceptable' Season Ticket Price for a child using mid range values was £160

Question 3 - Match Day Tickets

If you answered 'Yes' to Question 1 what do you consider being a 'fair and reasonable' cheapest price to pay for an Under 16's Match Day Ticket in the Championship?

a) £5 or below per match     19%
b) £6 per match                  14%
c) £7 per match                  18%
d) £8 per match                  17%
e) £9 per match                    3%
f) £10 per match                 27%
g) More than £10 per match   2%

The average 'fair and acceptable' Match Day Ticket Price for a child was £7.60

Question 4 - Definition of a Junior concession

Currently the club categorise juniors as being under 16. Many clubs have a tiered aging structure that has cheaper prices for younger children. This therefore allows children who have paper rounds or other part time jobs to contribute to the ticketing costs. Should the club introduce a refined definition of a child category to say 12 years old and then a junior category to 16 years old?

a) Yes 78%
b) No 22%

Question5

Note that this question is only for those fans that do not currently buy tickets for their children to watch Leeds United or will not be renewing their current child's season ticket for next season at the current or a higher price.

Should the club eventually utilise what you consider to a ‘fair and reasonable’ price for children’s tickets for Championship football what then what do you consider the likelihood of you buying either a season or match day ticket next season.

a) Possibly 23%
b) Probably 31%
c) Certainly 46%

Note: 179 supporters voted in this section, the remainder indicating 'Not Applicable'.

Analysis of Results

There are two obvious results from the Survey that stand out. The first being that the vast majority of those that responded to the Survey thought that prices for children were too high and the second being that a similar majority were of the opinion that the club should introduce a further tier(s) in their pricing structure.

The voting also appears to indicate that it is season ticket prices that cause more of a problem for supporters than those for match days. Indeed there appears to be little value in a child’s season ticket at all. Should a child attend every league match (a fanciful idea given the amount of evening kick offs in the CCC) then he (or she) would spend £230 (23x £10) using the cheapest available option, add in the cost of membership (£15) then the cheapest match day ticket costs for the season could be no more than £245, and yet the cheapest Season Ticket cost is £216 – a saving differential of only £29 or the equivalent of less than 3 games. This differential is one of the lowest in the CCC and one assumes must be a major factor in a parent deciding not to invest in a child’s season ticket.

Of the 179 supporters who either currently do not buy tickets or who are not intending to renew next season then some 77% of these indicated that should the club revise it pricing policies for children then they would either Probably or Certainly buy tickets next season.

Suggestions

We are fully aware that asking the club to reduce ticket prices per se is a fruitless exercise. The excesses of previous regimes have and will continue to ensure that the supporters will have to pay ‘over the odds’ in some form or another. It is therefore important that we look at suggestions that we are of the opinion may well INCREASE revenue to the club by attracting supporters who under the current pricing structure would not otherwise attend games.
Notwithstanding that we would ask that the club consider, as a minimum, the following ticket initiatives for children:

• Reintroduction of the 2 Adult, 2 Children Family packages. These appeared always well supported previously.
• Introduction of an Under 12’s ST and Match Day category (at a price higher than the average but lower than what they are now)
• Introduction of a Family Season Ticket – 1 adult and 1 Child.
• Introduction of a Family match day ticket – 1 adult and 1 Child.
• Tap into the huge student population in Leeds with a young adult/ student match day ticket offer.
• A review of the membership system, which was severely criticized in our survey, in order to make it a less onerous task to join. We know that the club has to have a membership system, one of the reasons being to try and help minimise ticket fraud which was rife until last season.

We feel that such initiatives will attract more children in both the short and longer term and the club will see the results financially not only in the core business of ticket revenues but in the other important parallel revenue streams of programmes, retail sales and catering etc.

Footnote

We had not intended in this report to include details of what other clubs in the CCC charged for their children's tickets as it is not really germane to this discussion and we are fully aware that LUFC has special financial circumstances which have to be taken into account.

However when our survey was announced, a Leeds United spokesman was reported as saying in the local press: "We're pushing the scheme this season, (referring to the clubs £10 concession ticket pricing) and our concessionary tickets are actually some of the cheapest in the Championship". We felt that he was being somewhat 'economical with the truth' if not a long way from the actuality and hence we have produced the following summary table from our research of all CCC clubs to try and provide a comparative insight into the problem. The prices for each club were based upon the cheapest possible way a child concession could gain entry for the lowest rated category game.

In addition we established that only Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton and Tottenham from the Premiership league clubs had more expensive 2006-2007 Season Ticket concessionary prices for a child than Leeds United. (Note: That list does not take into account the cost of adult entry when accompanying a child).