West Ham game moved from Home to Away!

[HarriersFan94]

Just thought I’d let the true fans of the club know what I heard today from a source inside the club. The club are in talks with the FA to try and get the game moved to an away game rather than at home, reason been “crowd trouble” at the Reading game! Or would it be them trying for more money and a lesser chance of winning!!

[Harrier1994]

If this does happen we will incur a bill of 9.25K for VAR costs

https://twitter.com/henrywinter/status/1480658413952643077

[Harriers1994]

If this does happen we will incur a bill of 9.25K for VAR costs
https://twitter.com/henrywinter/status/1480658413952643077

West Ham are a wealthy club, if it does get switched, they will probably gift us a lot of the gate or help us in other ways. A lot of prem clubs donate the gate or help out with certain costs in the FA cup. Although it was a different cup, villa donated there share of the gate to barrow last year

[Phil]

Chelsea have told Chesterfield that they have to pay their share.

[BobGreenwoodsDad]

Presumably a move to West Ham would make it less attractive to TV (nobody wants to watch a one-sided game at a Premier League ground) ? Would the extra revenue from gate receipts make up for that ?

[howells]

In 2003 the FA stopped that. It would only change if the ground was not up to standard and it would go to a neutral ground .

[harriershane]

Ill try and find the wording, but I’m sure that it can only be switched if the ground is deemed unsuitable?

If marine isn’t getting switching to Spurs last season, I’d take with a pinch of salt.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/football/2003/mar/12/newsstory.sport1

[harriershane]

In 2003 the FA stopped that. It would only change if the ground was not up to standard and it would go to a neutral ground .

Saved me a job! Thanks Howells!

[Tom.10]

I hope this isn't true!

[harriershane]

From the FA

[Harriers1994]

In 2003 the FA stopped that. It would only change if the ground was not up to standard and it would go to a neutral ground .

That is correct mate. However if the club has a liable reason I.e safety of the fans and both clubs agree to the switch it can happen! … if someone wants it too happen and they know what they are doing, they can make it happen.

Also we dug deep tonight. Great result and another fantastic graft from the lads.

[HarrierN2]

Probably not a popular opinion, but I'd totally understand if this was to happen. I think we'd at least double our revenue from the game if we switched it (and that's accounting for TV being cancelled) but could as much as quadruple it. In terms of our future, that could make a massive difference.

[Bewdleyharrier]

In a way this makes sense

The club will get more than 5k tickets so realistically anyone that wants to go can go.
If we get 50k at the Olympic Stadium at £10 a ticket that's £500k in gate revenue, our share would be a hefty circa £200k
At Aggborough if you say an average of £30 a ticket for 5k attendance that's £150k overall, without taking into account the West Ham share (that you'd like to think they would donate) and the police/stewarding costs etc

Part of me feels that a home game for those that get tickets would be an amazing experience, but part of me feels an extra £150-200k will help the club this season, next season and beyond.

I would say we are guaranteed to be on TV after the weekend, regardless of whether we are home or away.

[HarrierN2]

Ah, West Ham charging only £10 a ticket for FA Cup games. That makes it a much tighter call.

[Harry Err]

Ah, West Ham charging only £10 a ticket for FA Cup games. That makes it a much tighter call.

They charged £10 adults and £1 for kids vs Leeds.

Would they get 50,000 vs us even at those prices? Possibly not. With the average price of a ticket being well under a tenner depending on the percentage of kids who attend the revenue may not be that huge.

From that sum take off their policing costs which remain constant and do not move in line with ticket prices and suddenly the net revenue starts to look more modest.

There is of course another factor and that is that West Ham may well give up their share of the gate receipts if the match is played at Aggborough. They are far less likely to do so for a home game.

All in all I’m not sure a change of venue would benefit us as much financially as you might think even if it resulted in a far larger attendance.