The R Word

No, I don't mean relegation. I mean renewal of season tickets. I haven't got round to doing mine yet, although I will before the discount period expires. But two other blogs - From Hill to the Valley and Drinking During The Game have expressed well-founded concerns about the renewal rate.

There are two big factors at work. One is that incomes continue to be squeezed while inflation carries on, especially for energy bills. If anything, inflation is likely to increase as the pound weakens and inflation targets are relaxed (it's one way of reducing the debt burden in real terms). So people will have less discretionary disposable income.

The second factor is dismal home form. To see the Addicks at their best you really need an away season ticket. I suspect that this trend is becoming self-reinforcing: the players feel more confident away than they do at The Valley.

It also doesn't help when the club seems more remote from the fans than in the past. At one time there was a feeling of 'we're all in this together', now we don't know who the ultimate funders are. Some of that was a hangover from the Back to The Valley days, reinforced by an earlier than expected ascent to the Premiership.

The worry is that once someone drops their season ticket, they don't come back very much on a casual basis. In a sense, coming to the game is all about habit. For example, I get the same train from Coventry for each home game, read that morning's FT between there and Euston, follow the same route to The Valley and get my programme from the same seller. I am almost on automatic pilot.

I know someone (we still exchange Christmas cards) who was a keen supporter. He and his wife had season tickets. He lived near Sparrows Lane, so didn't have far to come. He even sponsored players and bought the occasional table in the lounges. Then he dropped his season ticket and the last time I saw him at The Valley was at the play off against Swindon.

When you are in a league where a lot of teams have generous parachute payments or wealthy foreign owners, you need all the gate money you can get. The worry is about a vicious downard spiral in which there is not enough money to acquire players who are competitive at this level (in fact we don't have many as it is).

I once gave a talk about football when a well-known sports historian was in the audience. He said that I hadn't emphasised suffering for one's team enough. Well, I have certainly experienced it over the last sixty years.