This position statement is made following a story posted today (Monday 7 March 2016) on the Doncaster Rovers website, that stated that Bradford City would ‘not be offering reduced prices’ for the game between the two Clubs this Saturday (12 March). It has been inferred on social media that a deal had previously been struck between the clubs with regard to the setting of lower ticket prices.
Bradford City would like to inform supporters of both clubs of the following information.
In October, it was discussed with Doncaster Rovers that they would be charging both home and away fans £15.00 in an attempt to boost the attendance for our game at the Keepmoat Stadium.
It was also discussed about a reduction in prices at the game at The Coral Windows Stadium but as a Club we decided that we could not enter into the deal because we were conscious of protecting our season ticket holders, especially as our summer season ticket campaign was based on encouraging people to buy season tickets and therefore rewarding them for their loyalty to the club.
As such in pre-season, we had made a policy decision not to reduce match day ticket prices on a match by match basis for any game throughout the current season.
We therefore decided that we could not enter into the deal. This was an effort by Doncaster Rovers to boost the attendance at their home game against Bradford City, a decision that cannot be faulted as it encourages a better atmosphere at the ground for that game. However we had already made our policy decision to encourage higher attendances and a better atmosphere for an entire season.We could not go behind this.
There has been a misunderstanding and we are now working pro-actively together towards a solution with Doncaster Rovers to help achieve higher attendances at both games.
Both Clubs have agreed that Bradford City will work with the Doncaster Rovers Supporter Group and Doncaster Rovers to provide official coach transport for all away supporters that wish to come to the game on Saturday. As a result, away fans that take up this offer are likely to save more money than they would on any ticket saving courtesy of Bradford City FC.