BA5FINALPIECE

By Graeme Douglas

Study Centre thrives as ticket prices rise.As ticket prices continue to risk excluding supporters. Nor-wich City football club attract the next generation of poten-tially ‘lost’ fans through football motivated education

Sport

A ‘family’ club; Norwich City Football Club are one of the few left in British football still attract-ing sell out crowds, as other clubs continue to struggle bridging the gap for the potentially lost generation of football supporters. The cost of following football appears close to an all-time high. Annual inflation for fans is running at more than 11 per cent. This is three-and-a-half times the rate for the economy as a whole. The rise has been partially driven by costs that fans could argue should be controlled by football clubs, such as ticket prices and replica shirts. At the same time, fans are being squeezed by

costs in the wider economy with petrol prices, rail fares, food and alcohol prices continuing to climb.In the current climate, the average fan could be forgiven for settling for televised matches. But the beautiful game is big business and for many fans, maintaining support for their local club may be a luxury they don’t want to forego. Supporters’ groups have warned the Premier League there is a danger of “future generations being lost” to the game after a Guardian survey revealed its cheapest tickets were the most expensive of the four major leagues in Europe and more than double those in Germany or Ita-ly. The average price for the cheapest ticket in the Bundesliga is £10.33 and the average cost of the lowest price adult season ticket is £207.22, compared to £28.30 and £467.95 respectively in the English Premier League.

The extraordinary thing is that this is an indus-try with mega amounts of money coming in at the top of the game. It ought to be possible to allow some of that money to be reflected in reduced ticket prices for people who go to the games. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the case, with supporters continuing to ask why they should pay increased ticket prices when all that happens with that money is more wages for players.

Norwich city certainly try to keep prices as low as possible. Understanding that times were tough for fans. David Mcnally the clubs chief executive has reiter-ated that the money raised would be reinvested in the first team.

Mr McNally repeatedly stressed the club’s status as a co-operative in his opening address, where he echoed the club’s intentions to rein-vest in the first-team, improve on and off the pitch, and continue its community work.

Its this community work that gives NCFC the accreditation of being one of Britain’s last family clubs. After attending sessions at their award winning study centre, noticing their con-sistent involvement with schoolchildren I saw first hand the effort in keeping them interested, not only in acedemic education but intrest in Norwich City Football Club, which effectively is encouraging promising futures, good life skills and keeping the turnsyles turning with this next generation of supporters hopefully at-tending for years to come. Noticing what good work the centre does Beth Gardner, Chief Executive of the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom said: “Educational visits are among the most memo-rable experiences in a child’s school life. The LOtC Quality Badge offers teachers a guarantee that not only is a venue providing the sort of ed-ucational value that they can build on in class long after the visit but they also have the appro-priate risk management structures in place.

After a genuinely insightful meeting both in terms of reflecting on what is happening now and his vision for the future, when I asked Paul Wickens about the LOTC certificate. the NCFC Study Centre Manager said “Being awarded the LOtC Quality Badge is a real coup for all the staff here as it shows that we offer young people the type of high quality learning experiences they

By Graeme Douglas

Study Centre thrives as ticket prices rise.really benefit from. We’re thrilled to get official recognition for our efforts and we look forward to welcoming even more children and young people from the local area to our Study Centre at Carrow Road”

As ticket sales to families keep declining, There is a danger of future generations being lost, if it doesn’t maintain its attraction to all sections of the communityWith the massive increase in media income they should be able to bring prices down, and support such community programs like the study centre which is completely self funded. At its heart, football isn’t about money and it is hard to envisage a time when fans will not find that extra £20 hidden down the back of the sofa. But these current realities may bring a reality check that football cannot afford to take fans for granted.

Personally I feel football should be available to all income levels, The cost of supporting a ‘super club’, and basic lack of access to tickets, have put many families off following FA Pre-mier League teams. Though this is not yet the case of NCFC. Support for this club can be like being part of a family, something which some parents feel is much more important for their children than what football’s major stars can offer. Noriwch City also offer a strong sense of ‘community’ to family groups, and a real feeling that their support actually matters and is val-ued by the club. The notion, of sharing unique memories with a child or parent at football is one that is common and important among foot-ball families. Particular moments in football can be some of the most emotive and memorable times in people’s lives. The Sat-urday routine is something that many parents will miss now their families are priced out of attend-ing matches. The study centre with-in NCFC provides a fantastic avenue for keeping all fu-ture football fans interested. They may not be able to reduce ticket prices in order to compete but be asured NCFC are doing everything they can to avoid this inevitable disconnection.

Cheapest ticket Most expencive ticket

120

100

40

60

80

20

Bundesliga PremierLeague

La LigaSerie A

*Some clubs in these leagues (Serie A and La Liga) include the price of corporate and VIP tickets in thier general pricing structures, which affects the averages

Premier league prices compared to other top European leagues

Jan’ 06 May’ 06 Sep’ 06 Jan’ 07 May’ 07 Sep’ 07 Feb’ 08 Jul’ 08 Oct’ 08 Jan’ 09 May’ 09 Aug’ 09 Feb’ 10 Jun’ 10 Aug’ 10 Jan’ 11 May’ 11 Sep’ 11 Jan’ 12 Apr’ 12Nov’ 09

70

75

80

85

90

95

100

105

110

115

120

The Rise and fall of the cost of football *Figures based on the average prices of 1 match day ticket, 1 match day programme food and Travel

Sport

Inside the mind of Sébastien Bassong

The Study Centre at Norwich City Football Club gave the oppertunity to pupils of Avenue Primary school a chance to interview Nowich City’s French Centre half, Sébastien Bassong. Pupils from Avenue Primary School attend the Study Centre at Norwich City Football Club every Monday after school for Three hours to do extra education based all around football.Group tutor Katie Ford, who has worked at the centre since 2007 brought the children to the reception in the Jarrold stand for a rutinely reg-ister before taking them upstiars into the more fun child friendly surroundings of the study centre where, even after a day of school, they we’re still lively and energetic. Katie addressed the children saying

“we have a very exciting night planned” as she continued to discuss the night, and what was in store for 9-10 Year olds, the penny be-gan to drop that a regular first team player was going to visit that evening. As the Pupil began to get more and more excited by the thought of autogragrphs and photograpghs, without reaveling which player it was a few of the “less interesed in football” kids looked towards me with the expression “he doesnt look much like a footballer all over thier faces. The time came for Katie to tell them who would be visiting as

specualtion was getting out of hand. When Ka-tie revealed it was in fact Sebastien Bassong the Children began to do background research and thought up potential questions to ask the tow-ering central defrender. As the arrival got closer and closer the school children could not hide their sheer excitment, as Bassong approached down the coridoor the kids rushed out of their seats as screams of ‘hes here! he’s here!’ rang through the building.

Heres how it went..

What has been the best moment of the season so far?

If you could be anyone for a day, who would you be?

Who is your favourite actor?

Which football club do you support?

What is your favourite number? Do you have any pets?

Who is your favourite player at NCFC?

“Wes Hoolahan”

Do you ever have fast food? if so what is your

favourite?

Who is your favourite superhero?

If you could time travel what era would you go too?

“Paris Saint Germain, Ive supported them since i was a boy”

“Superman, If i had a chance to be one, I would defiantly be

him”

“I would go to the future, out of curiosity of what I might look

like”

“Barack Obama. though the things I would like to do would take much more than a day”

“It has to be beating Manchester United”

“Denzel Washington”

“Number 5. Its my squad number here at Norwich City, when i signed for the club it was available so i asked if i could have it”

[laughs] “Ide have to say Mac-donalds I shouldnt be telling you

this but I probably have a big mac every 10days. Please dont

tell my manager!”

Do you have your 5-a-day?

“Yes everyday I have lots of fruit and vegtables”

When not playing football do you play anyother sport?

“Yes I try to keep myself as fit as I can I play a lot of tennis and basketball”

“I have two Jack russell dogs, Coby and Ruby”