Match day programmes were once an essential item for football supporters
A Yorkshire Non League club says it is losing £1,000 a season on match-day programmes.
The un-named club official, who highlights the cold hard reality of the wastage that programmes bring, believes the much-needed money would be better spent in other areas.
The comments come a month after Non League Yorkshire proposed an end to the rule that match-day programmes must be produced due to the information now available on websites and social media.
The un-named club official told Non League Yorkshire: “I don’t think there is a market for programmes anymore.
“Our programmes cost around £2,000 a season to print. We have 40 delivered for each home game and we rarely sell over 20 so we’re losing quite a bit of money every time because they cost £75 for 40 copies.
“We do have some advertising in our programmes, but the income doesn’t cover the losses.
“We think people would rather pay 20p for a team-sheet, rather than a programme which is likely to be out-of-date in some cases. Producing team-sheets would certainly be more affordable clubs at this level who live hand to mouth every week.
“I really think the authorities should look their rules on programmes. We would rather invest the £1,000 or £2000 we spend on programmes on the facilities and our community football projects for local kids.”
Your losing money by printing 40 programmes because you rarely sell more than 20? Oh dear someone needs to wake up!!
It’s a matter of getting organised and depends on how many come through the turnstiles.On average it’s between 1 in 4 and 1 in 5 programmes per supporter.We always manage to make a small profit over the season and rarely sell more than 70
For those that may not realise, some clubs who get their programmes printed may be subject to minimum quantities per order.
Also sales on a midweek may be significantly lower than a Saturday. Therefore lose money on night games because of lower attendances.
At NCEL level it should not be a requirement. Individual clubs should decide. A good standard team sheet is printed at some grounds and that is all that is needed. Spectators mainly want to know the names of the players. A lot of spectators ask to photograph
the team sheets that are completed by the match secs. prior to kick off.