Golden chance missed in the rush for gold

@ BrisbaneBhoy thanks for the advice I will stay at home them I guess my FTP banner should be left in the cupboard as well. ;)

I hope the magical people keep in mind that more people means more pople paying for overpriced food and drink...unless the other magic people sold the food concession or did a bad deal with the stadiums magic people :)

there are these magical people, i dunno the name, but lets call them "pricing analysts", and they are very good at guessing what prices the market will bear and how to get the maximum revenue possible. so 10000 people paid 5o bucks each for the fulham match. how many people would have paid 25 bucks each to watch this match? i dunno, i am not a pricing analyst. but if the number is over 20000, then you have made more money. if it is less, you have lost money.

Add this one to the Mad Miron file: Why are they going to South America to prepare anyway when the championships are in Egypt. I am not having a go at the coach (Jan Versleijen) here. I am a fan of Dutch football. http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,25756785-5006068,00.html Now I'm not having a go at Miron here. I'm a fan of mad Israelis. Cheers Zohan.

Good result ... ya true about ticket prices

@ Mattyg - A lot of the time pre-season friendly ticket prices are out of the clubs hands. Take the Brisbane vs Celtic match as an example. The match is paid by the promoter, in this case the Qld government and Scott McDonald's agent - Lou Sticca. Both the Qld government and Lou Sticca will be keen to get l lot of their investment back. I doubt they care all that much at the attendance numbers, they just want their money. Also the higher the attendance the money money it cost for the likes of police, security, F&D etc, etc. @ MVDave - Wouldn't GCU "big one" be against Brisbane on Boxing Day, and not some match against MV??? :P @ Jimbo - It was neither. I was 1/3 full :D

Was the stadium half full or half empty?

Wow JohnB, 2,000 Kip. That makes the Cambodian Premier League twice as expensive! It may also go some way as to explain as to why many of the clubs are in financial dire straits. Some are already reportedly paying 50% wages to players in a bid to stay liquid.

Thanks KB Make sure you're available for the big one...the visit of MV who shall have master coach 'Sir Scottish One' and Carlos 'The Jackal' Hernandez ready to demonstrate the art of winning football :) to those pretenders from the coast!

As a Gold Coast resident happy to post up some pix ... history was made last night ... a toast to the new kids on the block... GCU FC 2 v Fulham FC 1 ;) http://tools.goldcoast.com.au//photo-gallery/index.php?group_id=125 ~~~~~~~ KB

A big mistake for teams who still need to build their brands up. Watching a good match in a packed stadium is fun for everyone and will get crowds back. Watching a match with a boring atmosphere from a half empty crowds keeps people away. Gold Coast and Perth should have been giving free tickets to every registered junior team & player in the Gold Coast/Perth region, let the kids come watch A League vs Premier League and build some real grass roots support. The parents will have kids bugging them to go to the game and will have to shell out and buy the full priced ticket. It builds great long term support for the club and builds atmosphere, which kid does not remember the 1st live matches they go to see? Cricket NSW used to do this and I still remember the free matches and star players I got to see. The parents had to pay (who would not have shown up otherwise), so the still got paying customers, and it built a great loyalty to the team.

These exhibition games need to be used by A-League clubs to attract new fans. I was at the Gold Coast game and there were a lot of new and enthusiastic football fans that witnessed a sensational game. Being a new club, G.C. United had the opportunity to fill Skilled Stadium and win over thousands of new fans. 20-25 dollar tickets would have drew 10,000 more people and got the fledgling club off to a flying start. I payed $35 for a "cheap" ticket behind the goals. At half time, my mates and I moved to centre wing. Some poor people were paying $65 for these prime seats. Clubs in all sports need to get real. Which is better? A half full stadium of people paying $50 or a full stadium of people paying $25. To me it is obvious, but to others I guess not.

@ Finno - I'm sure it would be a laugh wearing your Rangers top in the Celtic end. I just don't see you laughing once you have been removed from the game, or something even worse. Don't be daft. We don't need anyone trying to start any problems. If you are only going to cause problems, please be smart and stay at home. ... As for the article. I agree. The prices are stupid for what is nothing more then a training run. I agree fully with Simon Wiseman. By Fulham playing the amount of A-League teams there are, it takes away from the "specialty" of the matches. Celtic 1 stop match is attracting Celtic fans from all across Australia and New Zealand. Fulham don't have much pull in Australia outside of the "they are an EPL team". So I'm sure GCU would be happy with the crowd that turned up.

I think you are spot on Tony. Socceroo, friendlies etc are all so ridiculously overpriced to make them nigh on impossible for the average family to attend, and as a result crowds are lower than they could be, and therefore "potential" spectators don't attend the matches. IMO the product is being charged at boutique prices when in reality it would be better off being promoted at a price designed to draw the numbers in. On another article (about Perth) Tuckerman spoke about Perth's dwindling supporters - how many new supporters (or jaded old ones) would be enticed to come out and pay 50bux for a crappy seat at a friendly? If the club wanted to grow support for its new look team it needs more than euro clubs to visit, it needs people to come and watch them play the euro clubs. In the UK the games are pricey because of demand, and overheads (read inflated wages). There is not the same level of demand here. and in any event it's not a great financial model for the game to go down here. in contrast to the EPL how about the Bundesliga's prices... and record attendances? there's an obvious correlation between price and turnout, and with clubs trying to grow grass roots and establish themselves surely in the long term i agree with the premise that it would have been better having 20,000+ attend the match (even if the billionaire professor may have had to fork out some more to the billionaire shop owner for the privilige).

Ben, I watched Australia U17 (I think) take on their Lao counterparts at the national stadium in Vientiane about 3 years ago, and I have an idea that was 2,000 kip, so this sort of gouging is pretty much universal.

That's nothing, I watched Kirivong Sok Sen Chey take on Preah Khan Reach at the National Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh and it set me back 2,000 Riel. And that to watch Kirivong.

I went to the game last night but have to say that had i not been going down to the GC for some Deeps Sea fishing with the kids as well, i probably would not have gone. Someone said , not bad attendance for a cold and rainy night. Well it drizzled for all of 5 mins 2 hours before the game , other than that it was a very nice evening. The attendance was very underwhelming considering all the glitz and razmatazz surrounding the GCU. The Roar got more to watch Supersport United......who ? I really hope it does not offer an insight into the future support. A lot of the people i saw were down from Brisbane to see the game. This could be viewed by GCU as good news, or were they just there to see an A League team play a EPL team close to their patch. The whole event seemed underdone to me. Half time entertainment was the usual kiddies playing , except they only had 2 games , at the Roar they seem to have like 10 going on.Nothing else happened at all . there was also No pre match entertainment. There did not seem to be a Home supporters group either as you have at the Roar and the other A league clubs. For all the money and Bling it seemed very short on effort and substance. On the ticket pricing i thought it was expensive when you consider for $41 i can take my family to see the Broncos. There was no Family ticket offer for this match at all. Probably a big mistake . The other mistake is flying them all over the country to play half the A -League. It waters down the offerring somewhat. Celtic on the other hand are playing just the one match and i imagine many people from Sydney and Melbourne of a Celt origin will be flying up to watch. indeed 10 days prior to the game the numbers were at over 30,000, and with walk up at Suncorp being very good, it is likely to top 40,000. Not bad. Sure you want to wear that Rangers jersey in the Away crowd !! Good luck with that. Oh yes the game ...on the pitch it was anything but friendly, and GCU moved the ball well in the second half when Miron was good enough to deign us with his 1st team, Minniecon had a dramatic influence. However real conclusions are hard to make as most of the Fulham team had departed after the first half.

10,000 crowd at those prices is good, hopefully not too much goodwill lost. I can understand the Celtic pricing as they are a big name with supporters over here who would pay a good price to see them. However Fulham and Wolves is a different matter. If Australia v Japan was $50 for cheap seats (bought before it was a known dead rubber) than how can Victory v Fulham be $52? If bringing Fulham is otherwise not viable than let them stay away. The fans will be more starved of football when the proper league gets under way. Finally last year Victory played Juventus, tickets were $40. Did I miss something or is the game against Fulham?

MVDAVE yeah well quality team mate, you have to pay for quality actaully they are $32. pricing was still ongoing but that was the last I heard... last year they were $23 $275 season was $375 but enough people kicked up a stink so they reduced it, behind the goal. I actually didnt buy a season ticket this year as i will be away but the reason is that Suncorp Stadium cost about 1.5 million for hire a year. Also penalities for not getting more than 10,000 and they are locked in for another 2 years. I talked to Qld Government who own the stadium and they have out sourced it to some other company and have no say in the administration. AEG - American Company bought out Ogden IFC Australian company now are called AEG Ogden owe most of the big sporting venues in the world. So you watch sport the profit goes stright overseas. Just a side note dont let i keep you up at night. Harvey Lister- is the CEO who wanted to have 1/2 rugby 1/2 League match. Sell tickets bottom $$ if it sings, dances or kicks a ball this guy has sold you a ticket. Timothy J. Leiweke is the big boss, football fans and set up the LA Galaxy and also run the Sydney v Galaxy game. Part of me chuckles to think that the spiritual home of league is Qld is run by a football loving american. typical really.

@ Wilba Gold Coast and the Roar have 14 home games this year. NQ Fury are much cheaper (less than $200) but only have 13 home games.