A Fair Deal For Fans!

By: Bill Osborne
Date: 04/05/2002

PETER Furneaux, Town's chairman has confirmed that there will be an increase in ticket prices this season but emphasised that the prices will stay affordable by everyone. The club had previously announced a price increase of £23 for season tickets.

With the perilous situation some clubs are in with the loss of the ITV Digital income, it is surprising that the club have made the decision to increase ticket prices by only £1.

".…We could have gone mad!!…."

Mr Furneaux explained the change saying: "It is only a modest increase and it won't make much impact on the budget we will have available but the board felt that after four years where the prices remained frozen, it was justifiable to add £1 to admission prices."

"We could have gone mad and put the prices up by much more and more in line with what some other First Division clubs are charging, but that might have been self defeating in the end."

"We believe that the fans will understand that we are trying to keep the prices affordable for everyone." END

This is good news for Town supporters. The club, quite justifiably, could have announced a substantial increase but appear to be relying on increased attendances to help with the financial situation they face this coming season, rather than stinging the fans.

This is a very fair and sensible decision by the club and one would expect that gates would improve with Paul Groves leading the team and producing results.

Blundell Park will continue to be one of the cheapest grounds in the football league to attend and this modest increase should not cause problems for most.

But there are still hard times ahead. A loss of £1.8million of TV money to a club the size of Grimsby Town is a considerable amount of money to make up so one would expect to see a "no frills" operation and further cuts in the oncoming season.

Town have a huge mountain to climb to get the club back in the black again and there can be no doubt that they will be looking to the fans and supporters to help them in the struggle.

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