West Ham United are unhappy that Blackpool failed to sell about 7,000 of their 35,000 ticket allocation for the Championship final. The Hammers could easily have sold more than their allocation. Over a season about 100,000 different individuals go through their turnstiles.
The shortfall means a loss of revenue of around £500,000. Given that the clubs will split 50 per cent of the ticket income West Ham (and Blackpool) will be £125,000 worse off.
West Ham United are unhappy that Blackpool failed to sell about 7,000 of their 35,000 ticket allocation for the Championship final. The Hammers could easily have sold more than their allocation. Over a season about 100,000 different individuals go through their turnstiles.
The shortfall means a loss of revenue of around £500,000. Given that the clubs will split 50 per cent of the ticket income West Ham (and Blackpool) will be £125,000 worse off.
The Football League based their level upon what Blackpool sold when they beat Cardiff City in the final two years ago. So why did they sell fewer tickets this time? Had the novelty worn off? Were peripheral fans less confident in the result?
Or is the recession biting more in terms of squeezed incomes and unemployment than it was two years ago? Blackpool has always faced economic challenges and, if anything, they have intensified in recent years. The ‘model based’ unemployment figure for the town (i.e., one which tries to compensate for missing data) was the highest in Lancashire in 2010 at 10 per cent.