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THE WEEK ON THE TEES 5-3-08
Luke Raine
This weekend’s home defeat at the hands of Reading was obviously damaging regarding the state of the Premier League table. Defeat to a team who have lost eight games on the bounce is never good.
However I do feel that there is another issue that has come out of Saturday’s game which could be a lot more damaging to the club in the long term.
The attendance for Saturday’s Premier League game slipped below 25,000 for the third time this season. This is something that many Boro fans will have deemed highly unlikely as little as five years ago.
Even when Steve McClaren was producing football which, although effective, wasn’t pleasing on the eye, crowds at The Riverside regularly touched 30,000.
Now in a new era under Gareth Southgate, where a bright young English manager is trying to put across his philosophy of attacking football, crowds are dwindling.
Every fan who has stopped watching the team in this period will have their own reasons for not going to the ground on a Saturday and that is fair enough.
It also isn’t just at our club where empty seats are becoming a problem.
Teams such as Blackburn Rovers, Wigan Athletic and Bolton Wanderers all have a similar problem when it comes to filling their grounds on a match day.
These teams also share a common theme with Middlesbrough – they are all towns with relatively small catchment areas for a football team.
The potential is certainly there though. A turn out of just under 30,000 for the cup replay with Sheffield United showed that with the right sort of price structure, fans will return.
This has been backed up by Sunday’s quarter final with Cardiff looking like it will be a sell out – at reduced prices.
The advantage of a big crowd creating an intimidating atmosphere for opponents cannot be underestimated either. Southgate briefly alluded to this point after the game with Reading at the weekend.
Steve Gibson also can’t be too impressed that, barely a month after spending over £12million on a new striker, crowd numbers have sunk to 23,273.
In my opinion, I don’t think the fans are solely to blame. I also feel that it isn’t just the Middlesbrough hierarchy who should be held responsible, even though they set the ticket prices.
In a way, football as a whole has got to take the majority of the blame.
Football in this country has long been about big business. The introduction of a new television deal last season that exceeded £1billion was a great example of this.
Yet despite this increased income, teams have failed to reduce ticket prices.
Many teams have frozen season ticket prices provided fans renew their current ticket before the current season has ended.
I don't think this is good enough. If each team is earning in excess of £50million a season from television revenue alone, surely they can afford to reduce prices too?
The problem comes when one club has to take the initiative. If no one else is offering a twenty-five percent cut in prices, then why should we?
There are also fans who have become so out of love with football that they have refused to attend any more matches.
The problem with this is that these people are in a minority.
As long as the planet is spinning, people will be attending football matches. There are those who have found the situation hard to digest and it is hard to disagree with them.
I am not going to sit here and criticise fans that don’t go to The Riverside on a Saturday afternoon. Neither am I in any sort of position to criticise Steve Gibson after all he has done for the club.
However, it is a sad indication of the way football is heading.
There are many good things about the game in this country but the issue of ticket prices is arguably the issue which turns most people away from the sport.
On a brighter note, last week saw David Wheater commit to the club until 2012. It goes without saying that it is great for the club to tie down such a great prospect, especially in light of previous speculation linking the defender with a host of Premier League clubs.
Wheater is a player, like Stewart Downing, who has the potential to become a home grown great for the club. There will undoubtedly be comparisons made with Tony Mowbray if the player continues to improve at the rate he currently is.
Most importantly, it is another example of a player from the club’s academy cementing a place in the first team.
This is an area which our club can certainly be proud of, especially in an age where it is seen as a safer bet to sign an experienced foreign player than to blood a youngster from the youth ranks.
It would also be difficult not to mention Arsenal’s achievement last night when they became the first English team to win against AC Milan at the San Siro.
While the conduct of Arsenal’s players on the pitch is sometimes questionable, there is no doubting the quality that their young squad possesses.
Even though nearly all of their first team squad is made up of foreigners, it shows that putting trust in young players is the only way they will progress and fulfil their potential.
This is something that Boro should certainly keep on doing.
Luke Raine
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