Brentford’s smart ticketing is winning over fans Fulham can’t afford to lose
6th February 2025
Jon Harland says Brentford are in pole position in the battle for West London’s next generation – and we are being left behind.
Joe Bryan’s Wembley heroics and Harry Wilson’s late show have ensured that Fulham have gotten the better of Brentford in recent years. But off the pitch, the Bees have beaten the Whites in one crucial aspect: matchday ticket strategies.
After freezing season ticket renewal prices for next season, our West London rivals introduced Gen10 this year, an initiative capping junior away tickets at £10 to attract a new generation of fans.
Steve Watts, Brentford Marketing Services Director, emphasised the importance of cementing fans’ connection with the club at an early age. In an interview with the Sports Gazette, he said: “The way that we choose to run our business is ideally for the good of the fans. We’re trying to make their lives better. We want to build a community of Brentford fans, especially young Brentford fans.
“While the cost of doing this isn’t insignificant to us, what’s more important is that we have more young fans coming to games,” Watts continued. “They are our fans of tomorrow. In 10 years I would love this end of West London for the kids to be coming out of school mainly wearing red and white stripes.”
Many Fulham fans reading this will be perplexed to see a club genuinely prioritising its supporters, disillusioned by a ticket model imposed by Alistair Mackintosh that financially exploits and prices out fans.
Fulham need to take a leaf out of Brentford’s book when it comes to selling tickets, or the consequences could be disastrous.
Profit v passion
Fulham CEO Alistair Mackintosh once said, “When I first spoke to the Fulham Disabled Supporters Association they gave me some advice and that was that Fulham is the sort of club that can have a business class or first class and have fans that turn left on a plane.”
Favouring these so-called business-class fans has created unrest within the fanbase. Unable to sell over-priced tickets to Manchester United at home last month, the club inexplicably put them on general sale. The result was away supporters brazenly parking themselves in the home ends, and the atmosphere was flushed out of the cottage, something Marco Silva has openly urged the club to improve.
Fulham’s most recent published accounts show that gate receipts only represent 8% of the club’s highest posted annual revenue – a drop in the ocean compared to broadcasting and commercial revenue.
Mackintosh must ask himself: is squeezing extra revenue through eye-watering ticket prices worth draining the atmosphere and alienating supporters? He sees bodies through the turnstiles as mere numbers and profit, in stark contrast to Watts and Brentford’s approach of putting loyal, dedicated fans in every seat through a fair ticket policy.
The cost of loyalty
When I was eight, my Dad took me to my first Fulham game. He didn’t follow a club and was looking for something to do with me and my brother. Drawn to the glitz and glamour of the Barclays Premier League and the reasonably-priced tickets, we went to see Fulham cruise to a 2-0 win over West Brom in 2008.
From that moment, I was hooked. I’m now a Fulham fan for life, a burden I will eventually bestow on my children.
For a father taking his two children to see the recent snoozefest with Manchester United at late notice, it would have cost £320. Meanwhile, ‘category A’ games at Brentford – including United – cost £80 for an adult and two children combined. That’s the same price as a single junior ticket in the Riverside stand for that game.
Thousands of Fulham season ticket holders had a similar path into the club as me, thanks to initiatives such as ‘Kids for a Quid’ in the 2000s. But now, more and more young people across South West London who are yet to be tied down to a football club will opt for the red and white stripes of Brentford over Fulham, given how much more affordable it is.
The high price of short-term thinking
If Fulham get relegated, where will the tourists and day trippers be for Plymouth at home on a Tuesday evening? Mackintosh’s strategy is an efficient method of making money in the short term, but only while the club is thriving in the Premier League.
Fulham are missing a trick. Brentford are driving sustainable, long-term growth by creating a new generation of fans who will be there through thick and thin. If something doesn’t change, the Whites will struggle to attract new, dedicated fans – and the atmosphere at Craven Cottage will continue to dwindle.
