Brentford Chief Executive Mark Devlin said he considered himself like any other football fan when it came to checking out the fixtures for a new season – looking for the big games first. The 2015/16 Sky Bet Championship season is just under five weeks away and Brentford will face Queens Park Rangers and Fulham in the same league campaign for the first time in almost 70 years.
During a lengthy interview with Bees PlayerHD, Mark spoke about the fixture list for the new campaign, released three weeks ago. He said he looked for those West London derby fixtures, games against Leeds United and at Christmas and started to imagine how The Bees would fare this term.
“I am like most supporters, it is always good to see who you get first and last,” said Mark. “I look for our stress games – Queens Park Rangers, Leeds United, Fulham as the last home game will be high profile.
“I also look at Christmas and I go through them in chunks looking how we will get on. It is guesswork on my part.
“I look at marketing opportunities and safety issues and then make assessments on games.”
Brentford have ten midweek fixtures scheduled, four of them at home. There is also a new TV deal coming in to force with more live Championship matches than ever before. This could mean fewer games at the traditional 3pm on Saturday afternoons and Mark admitted there were drawbacks to the changes.
“Tuesday night games, every team in the league will tell you, are a real challenge from an attendance point of view,” he said. We usually compete with Champions League football, the pubs show that.
“That is always popular. Clubs have to be creative. We have looked at out Tuesday night games and are coming up with an action plan.
“Less kids attend on Tuesdays.
“The new TV opens up some extra nights – we could play on a Thursday night, Friday night, early or late Saturday, Sunday or even Monday if Sky want.
“I understand from a fans’ perspective the move can be frustrating but it is the way the broadcast world works, Sky put a lot of money in and we try to make it as easy as we can for supporters, giving as much information as we can as early as we can.”
Brentford had an average attendance for their 23 home Championship games last season of 10,822, having sold more than 5,600 Season Tickets. Mark said the Club was targeting 6,500 sales for 2015/16 and he was happy with the number sold so far. He said it was particularly pleasing that more young fans had bought Season Tickets.
“We are targeting 6,500 Season Tickets,” said Mark. “I am really happy. It is a new record. We sold a fantastic number last year on the back of a promotion season, there was natural excitement.
“We are on the back of a good year but don’t have the uplift of promotion and have gone through those figures and are on target financially. It has been a successful campaign.
“Sometimes people think fans will turn up to watch a successful team, it is not always as simple as that.
“You lose people for a variety of reasons – we have lost 15 per cent from last year even though we have sold an extra 400.
“People who have not renewed didn’t come to a lot of games last year. It is particularly pleasing that 26 per cent of Season Tickets have been sold to people aged 21 and under.
“That is seven per cent higher than last year. Our policy is to introduce young people and young families and it looks like that has been a success. We increased our junior price from £30 to £90, that is still less than £4 a game and good value for money. We will do the same with match ticket pricing.”
There were a few changes to Season Ticket prices and terms this year with no more free Golden Junior tickets sold and junior prices up from £30 to £90.
The Golden Senior category was also brought to a close, although anyone who already qualifies can continue to receive the offer, and the senior age was raised to 65 from 60, although again anyone already paying senior rate will continue to do so.
“Early on when people were digesting prices there was some negative comments,” said Mark. “Our new admission technology means we can identify areas of the ground where Season Tickets were being bought but rarely used. One of the disadvantages of a cheap ticket is that people can buy it and use it on half a dozen occasions. We felt we needed to encourage people to use their tickets. And when they can’t use them we will be pushing the buyback system. We want to encourage people to give up their ticket if they can’t make it. We want as many people in the stadium as possible.”
Brentford’s Ticket Exchange system allows fans to return their Season Tickets for individual matches they cannot make. Mark said the Club would be pushing that more this year after it worked well in 2014/15 but without a high take up.
“The most tickets we ever had returned was about 140,” he said. "Some games we didn’t sell the tickets we had returned. We are concentrating on talking to Season Ticket Holders and continuing the awareness of the scheme, how easy it is to use and the benefits.”
The full video interview can be seen on Bees PlayerHD.