Randy Savage
Winger
By "small" that probably equates to a few dozen which I would expect every club to do. Our club went way OTT on the dishing out of freebies/discounted tickets which means that even though our crowds are actually up on 10 years ago, the revenue they generate is well down which would make us unique in that respect.
I chucked my SC in 2013 because my workplace gets 40-50 free tickets for every home game which I take advantage off. That's £400 a season they've lost off me and believe me there's plenty more in the same boat.
It's possibly a tactic you can get away with in the PL but in the Championship gate money is crucial and it will hit home this coming season when total gate receipts equate to around £7m for the season or Jack Rodwells salary x2.
This is spot on.
The freebies we dish out is out of hand. The amount of people I've noticed going through turnstiles next to me with a ticket marked £0.00 is incredible. I'm convinced that if we stopped this that some gates would dip below 30,000 and the club are concerned about how this would look. The club have, however, completely devalued the match day revenue stream.