There’s nothing like the death of an ex-Prime Minister to ignite debate around the rights and wrongs of his or her political philosophy; the bigger the name, the bigger the legacy, the bigger the debate.
While politics in football remains mainly the preserve of the upper echelons – the FA, UEFA and FIFA notorious for their high-level power struggles – a few footballing figures have decided now is the time to chuck in their two-penneth.
The two-pronged request from Messrs Madjeski and Whelan – both confirmed beneficiaries of the Thatcher years – for a minute’s silence prior to the weekend games was sensibly declined by the FA. To expect any such plea to be wholly observed given the polarising effect of said lady was folly in the extreme and thankfully common sense has prevailed.
There are more than enough reasons to fall out with your Carrow Road neighbour without chucking political opinions into the mix; like debating the rights and wrongs of your manager for example.
The simmering discontent over Chris Hughton’s management style has taken on a life of its own of late – Twitter and the message-boards affording the dissenters a disproportionately loud voice – but the depth of feeling of some was brought home to me over my pre-match drink last Saturday.
Upon the release of the team news, a normally mild-mannered gent – who often stops by for some pre-match banter – decided to interrupt the convivial chat with an out-of-character, uncontained, wide-eyed, ashen faced rant ; Hughton’s decision to start with a virtually unchanged team seemingly tantamount to treason.
While not averse to a debate around all things green and yellow, on this occasion I felt it best – with the hackles on my neck rising – to head to the best yellow plastic seat in the world and leave my dad to test out his diplomacy skills.
As it turned out, it appears he did so quite successfully (at least that’s what he tells me), by using the old “whose shoes would you rather be in” technique – a method he’s honed to perfection over the years, even in less prosperous Norwich City times.
Those of you who, like me, live on the border – and have no option but to mix with supporters of ‘that lot’ on a daily basis – will be familiar with said method; comparing the two clubs on a like for like basis from all angles, and see who comes out on top.
While the object of the exercise is to prove what we already know – that City are in an infinitely better position right now – there have been occasions in the past when this could only be achieved with the benefit of yellow-tinted spectacles.
Not any more…
Without wanting to appear churlish (childish even) there are a few obvious ones:
At the end of this season City will be free of external debt; Ipswich (there, I’ve said it) recently announced a loss of nearly £16m in the financial year 2011-12 as the debt to their owner, the mysterious Marcus Evans, rose to more than £72m (their total debt now around £80m).
City are proud owners of both Carrow Road and Colney; Ipswich have long since ceased to be owner-occupiers of Portman Road and have recently sold their training ground, Playford Road, to a company owned by the kind-hearted Mr Evans.
City play to a full Carrow Road of 26,500+ every week; Town are salivating at the prospect of a bumper 20,000 crowd on Saturday when Hull City swagger into town.
City recently announced the summer arrival of Ricky van Wolfswinkel for a reported £8.5m – thereby smashing their record transfer fee – with plans already afoot to add more quality to the squad; Mick McCarthy’s squad will require a complete summer rebuild with the current one bolstered by 6/7 loan players and a similar number out of contract.
City’s football academy has been granted category one status and the U18s are currently only a game away from a place in the FA Youth Cup final; Town opted for a category two academy set-up.
Norwich is officially a fine City; Ipswich is a.… town (Ok… that one was childish – they did win the FA Cup in 1978 after all).
But you get the gist… and that’s without stooping to ‘paying off creditors at 5p in the £’ levels.
While things have been a little grim of late – both in terms of style and form – we could all benefit from taking a step back; things could be a whole lot worse. With David McNally at the rudder the journey has been undeniably thrilling and even if this season has seen a levelling off – a small step backwards even – it’s no cause for panic and delirium.
So before we fire off tweets and emails to the CEO telling him how he should be doing his job, and before we get the hump if things don’t go to plan at the Emirates, just take a good look around us.
Yes, there are those who have leap-frogged us in the pecking order right now (I’m thinking Swansea and Southampton) but there are infinitely more who’d give their own ground to be in City’s position.
If the worst happens – and I don’t think it will – we’ll still be supporters of a club that’s virtually free of debt, is asset-rich and which has a loyal and ever-growing fan base.
We’ll also be supporters of a club that has a habit of doing things the right way; a club run by decent people.
Not bad for a ‘small club to the north’ – now bring on the Arsenal.
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Hi Gary, While I agree with the general argument there is one thing that really makes me less than proud of our club…….the casual ticket prices. Compare for example Villa’s matches against us and Man Utd. Whilst the top price of £45 is the same, OAPs pay £9, Under 21s and over 16s full price of £45 at Carrow Road at Old Trafford all have greatly reduced concessionary prices. Apart from under 12s where they have no category all concessions are worse off and we are charging the same as the probable champions. This is where the decent club label you use goes awry – we are blatantly using the small ground we have to fleece those who can least afford the tickets. The old, the young and those in full time education. This is short sighted in relation to both our standing in the community of fans nationwide and our own future fans. And what makes this worse is that when its an A+ game the price goes up to an eye watering £50. If we where a decent club we would be dropping the prices to the level of equivalent clubs in the Premier League. I would suggest a maximum of £40 is enough and concessionary rates that are comparable to other clubs particularly for young people over 17 who are not working.
Most aspects of NCFC make me a proud supporter but greed and unfairness don’t.
Peter
Mistakes in previous post – sorry. The prices are:
NCFC Man U
Adult – £45 £45
OAP – £35 £26
U21s – £45 £35.50
U18s – £45 £26
U16 – £25 £17
U12 – £15 £12
To compare to a similar sized club that sells out; Stoke City is also interesting:
NCFC v Stoke Stoke v NCFC
Adult -£45 £25
Under 21s – £45 £25
Under 18s – £45 £25
Under 17s – £45 £15
Under 16s – £25 £15
Under 12s – £15 £15
Under 11s – £12 £15
The prices at NCFC are a disgrace and we should be demanding fairness for fans of all types and categories both home and away.
Peter – you’ve done your homework but not told the full story. To say the prices are a disgrace is ridiculous. Cheaper casual adult prices are available than what you’ve quoted. Man Utd can afford to be that cheap because of their vast global support/income whilst even the most diehard of Stoke fans would never pay as much considering the ‘style’ of football that is on offer.
In terms of season tickets, City’s prices compare pretty well – not the cheapest (that’s Wigan, which is fair enough as their team only turns up for the last 10 games of a season) but far from the worst value for money (approx. 30 quid per PL game).
You pay your money (or not), you take your choice. Is there really a huge swell of unrest out there at ticket prices?
Russell’s done a pretty good job of de-bunking the ‘expensive’ casual ticket prices, but a couple of extra points.
Mr McNally has consistently said that every spare penny will go toward the football squad, and as long as we continue to sell out for home games there is clearly still elasticity in supply and demand. Those who can afford the prices pay them, and there are still queues for buy-backs.
Peter also quotes Stoke as a similar sized club who also sell out their home games. No, they don’t, not this season. There is increasing disquiet with the style of Pulis’s orcs and increasing numbers of empty seats. Don’t forget they have been drip fed millions each season they’ve been in the Premier League and are backed by the squillions of Peter Coates. Perhaps once we’ve been in the Premier League that long and the fascination fades we too might reduce our concessionary prices. I’m prepared to be patient.
Nice article though Gary.
The problem with casual ticket pricing, bearing in mind we have 22,000 STH, with to a maximum of 2,300 away supporters, is that for top games there are as few as 2,500 available for casuals. In that context it’s very easy to sell out, even at the high prices, simply because of the huge demand and limited supply.