Wycombe Wanderers have a set up suitable for the Championship, the problem is a Championship set up isn’t suitable for League Two

This weekend I was fortunate enough to attend two FA Cup 3^rd Round Ties. A delayed 2^nd Round replay between Lincoln and Hereford pushed back the winner’s next round tie with Wycombe Wanderers to midweek and provided me with the opportunity to travel into London to watch Fulham host Peterborough. I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at one, the other was very different.

Craven Cottage, the 115 year old home stadium of Fulham FC, brings with it a wide range of reviews from ‘falling down’ to ‘full of character’. My belief is that its firmly the latter, it’s not trying to be the most comfortable stadium in the world and indeed doesn’t compare to anything built since the Taylor Report, but with the oldest stand (The Johnny Haynes Stand) in the football league, its positively brimming with character and history.

Adam’s Park, home of Wycombe Wanderers, is almost the opposite, a modern stadium built only 20 years ago, it lacks character but serves the purpose of an ambitious forth tier football club. And Wycombe Wanderers are indeed ambitious with a deep desire to reach the Championship (2^nd tier), the management of the club are clearly ready for greater things as the setup to manage a large club is already in place. The problem I encountered on a damp and cold Tuesday evening is that it simply doesn’t work for a League Two team like Wycombe.

The FA Cup brings with it all sorts of challenges for clubs. The games aren’t included in the season ticket holders pass and a there is generally lower attendance as a result. Both Fulham and Wycombe approached this problem with a similar fix but only one club successfully pulled it off. Both clubs lowered prices to encourage people to the stadium. At Fulham the cost of a seat was dropped to £15 in advance and £20 on the day. At Wycombe a seat on Tuesday would set you back £15 or a place on the terrace just £10. Wycombe also went a bit further to encourage more families and children to attend and gave entry to all under 16s for just a £1 (Quid a Kid).

Wycombe is a club struggling for attendances nowadays and I can’t quite understand how they can charge pretty much the same price for a ticket as a Premiership team and expect people to come rolling down to the stadium to watch them play. If I were a neutral football fan with only £15, I know which game I’d choose to go to. I guess though, they must me focusing on the ‘family of supporters’ with the ‘quid a kid’ scheme they had in place.

What I witnessed on Tuesday night had many supporters shaking their head in disbelief. With no queues at the turnstiles to get into the stadium, the stewards were demanding everyone goes to the ticket office and buy a paper ticket only to hand it in at the turnstile (for those who have never been to a match outside the Premier League, its common practice at smaller team, to pay simply as your walking into the stadium). A pointless exercise in doubling staffing numbers and cost without any gain. What I found so hard to believe is that on a damp and cold evening, the club enacted a policy to make long queues at the ticket offices meaning many missed the start of the game, instead of allowing people and families (that they did so well to encourage to come along) to enter the stadium in an easy and efficient manner. It just doesn’t make sense to keep people waiting outside the stadium, when they could quickly pay cash at the point of entry. I had to queue for 20 minutes to buy my ticket when I had £15 cash in my hand I could have just handed to the person at the turnstile.

When the stadium is only 25% full, that’s an attendance of just 2,500, this is nothing but a complete failure by the club to manage a good match-day experience. I wouldn’t recommend taking a child along, even if it is just £1 to get them in, Wycombe’s management will make them stand around outside stadium (come rain or shine) for 20 minutes before hand.

The system Wycombe used is actually the same as Fulham (and many other major events) where no one is able to pay for admission at the point of entry. Fulham though, average crowds of over 20,000, and can therefore demand it of the visitors in order to have the match operations run more smoothly. A football game at Adams Park however is not a major logistical event, for a football club that pulls in just 2,500 to operate this system is a shambles.

There’s a simple theory in business, if you want more customers to buy your product (and Wycombe Wanderers are clearly struggling to attract people), make it as easy as possible for them to buy it! It’s an idea which clearly hasn’t come before the Wycombe management board yet.