TIME TO CHANGE THE PROGRAMME?
Coventry City’s Programme Editor Carl Newall is asking for ways of improving City’s match-day programme. We look at what clubs abroad are doing and whether we can use their methods.
Football programmes are getting dearer and dearer. Anyone, who has purchased a copy of every Coventry City programme home and away for the season just gone has spent £144 or more if they had it on subscription just on programmes to add to the ever-increasing cost of admission prices and travel costs.
Programmes for matches have been produced since the 1900s but with their increased costs which was £3 for the average Championship programme in the season just gone, readership has declined over the years.
City’s programme, on the admission of the Programme Editor, has been only selling to one in six of those who go to a game at the Ricoh Arena, something that translates to around 1800 sales for some games in the season, which finished on May 7th.
You can probably blame the internet for the poor sales as the vast majority of the information contained in a programme bar a few interviews, pictures etc are generally already out in the public domain by the time the programme comes out.
Something happening a lot across the Channel is that the leading clubs in France, Germany etc, are finding it better for their finances to completely do away with their programme departments and outsource their match-day publication to the local newspaper.
As the Coventry Telegraph does with the Coventry Times, the match-day publication is paid for by advertising, which the newspaper obtains. Instead of the publication being delivered to people’s houses, it is simply put into news-stands both outside and inside the stadium for supporters to pick up, thus eradicating the need for programme sellers.
Having seen a number of club newspapers from abroad, there is certainly no lack of quality in either editorial content or information in these publications and for clubs who are saving costs, supporters who save money and get something from their club for nothing and advertisers who get a readership that a normal programme might not bring, it is a win-win situation and one that Football League Club Chairman may like to consider for the future.
For those who wish to have their say on improving City’s match-day programme, please email design@ccfc.co.uk