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I can not understand why TUFC have decided to put a possible friendly with Osasuna of the Spanish La Liga at jeopardy, by arranging a game at Tiverton Town on Tuesday, July 23 (7.30pm).

Surely, if well advertised, then a game with Osasuna would have been a good money spinner.

Banging_Them_In wrote:I can not understand why TUFC have decided to put a possible friendly with Osasuna of the Spanish La Liga at jeopardy, by arranging a game at Tiverton Town on Tuesday, July 23 (7.30pm).

Surely, if well advertised, then a game with Osasuna would have been a good money spinner.

Where did you get this from?

It may or may not have been possible and also you have to compensate for the cost of actually having them here, as Bournemouth fans are finding out right now. These clubs want a premium for playing and if your ground is small then the only way to cover the costs is to charge more per seat.

TUFC may have felt we wouldn't have made enough from this game to balance up the cost of hosting it? Who knows without actually knowing the facts. also if Knill is honest with what he says and he wants us to be favourites and playing matches that we should win then maybe he thought Tiverton was a better opponent for our players?

royalgull wrote:It may or may not have been possible and also you have to compensate for the cost of actually having them here, as Bournemouth fans are finding out right now. These clubs want a premium for playing and if your ground is small then the only way to cover the costs is to charge more per seat.

TUFC may have felt we wouldn't have made enough from this game to balance up the cost of hosting it? Who knows without actually knowing the facts. also if Knill is honest with what he says and he wants us to be favourites and playing matches that we should win then maybe he thought Tiverton was a better opponent for our players?

This is an excellent point Royal and that is where I get disappointed with TUFC at times, the lack of communication. If this is the case or something similar then why don't they just explain the reasons why to us all so that we are all aware and can see their point of view. I'm sure if they came out and explained then we'd all fully understand and we'd all appreciate the information.

I see. So it comes down to how many TUFC could expect to attend and at what rate. Real Madrid, yes......but sorry Osasuna......no.

......also, I agree with the point about communication.

i don't think Osasuna would get us a sell out personally, they aren't that big of a draw. Real Madrid going to Bournemouth sounded great for AFCB fans until they were told it would cost them £60 to watch it. How else can they afford to host them in a ground that holds 8/9000 people?!!

We'd be in a similar situation although obviously the cost wouldn't be as high but if we were expecting a crowd of 4000 say for it, how much would it cost to have them here? Would you want to pay £30 a ticket to watch a friendly?

No, unless it was Real or Barca. £60 might be too steep though.....

Thought we had signed a player called Osasuna for a second then. Never heard of them.

I would never pay the likes of £60 to watch ANY match at Plainmoor, especially a friendly where a bunch of primadonnas flounced around the pitch for 90 minutes only stopping every 5 minutes to check their reflection in the dug-out glass....

....and I bet the visitors would do just the same!

As I live not too far from Real Sociadad I wanted to see them play Real Madrid but one I could not get a ticket and two they were going for one hundred euros,roughly eighty five quid,amazing as the financial problems in Spain are catastrophic,but I guess if you are a true supporter nothing stops you watching

I read it as we were trying to organize a game against Osasuna and when that didn't happen, we turned to Tiverton as an alternative opponent. I doubt any board/manager would be stupid enough to throw away the chance to play a high-profile foreign team with the reckless abandon you accuse United of.

It is common practice from some of England's bigger clubs and even their managers to charge an "appearance" fee for a friendly match, believe me it's a widespread practice and one that those who attend friendlies should know.

A team who came down for a friendly last year charged even small non league clubs in the area a fee, meaning that they had to charge £10 a head for tickets.

Perhaps even more surprising was a member of their management team charged a fee of several thousand pounds to these same clubs......can't say whom but I am sure some may guess. ....next time he says he is passionate about South West football, don't believe it !

Not sure he "charged" Torquay anything mind you...I doubt it considering his history

DTUFC wrote:I read it as we were trying to organize a game against Osasuna and when that didn't happen, we turned to Tiverton as an alternative opponent. I doubt any board/manager would be stupid enough to throw away the chance to play a high-profile foreign team with the reckless abandon you accuse United of.

......naah, I'm not accusing United of reckless abandon really, just posing the question whether it is in fact stupidity or whether there are logical reasons for the handling of this particular situation. I am opening a debate here.

Royal's got it. Osasuna want a hundred grand, the police want 50 officers for 4 hours at £12 an hour, assorted matchday costs of £5000 and suddenly, the 4000 people who will turn up have to pay £30 to watch an Osasuna XI that no one has ever heard of walk about and beat us 12-0 without even tying their shoelaces.
Given that we can't even get 3000 through the gates at £15 when there's a chance we'll win 5-0, what hope have we in the aforementioned situation?

Matt.