CAS Trust wrote to CAFC this week regarding Saturday's FA cup match

Of concern was a request for more information regarding the business reasons for closing all but the Lower West and North stands for Saturdays 3rd round match against Oxford United. Also see the follow up article have Charlton fans fallen out of Love with the FA Cup? The club do have contingencies in place should the open stands become full, it is assumed this will be either the upper West or North areas.

Last years match against Huddersfield at the Valley on the same round saw only 6000 Addicks attend, and around 500 Huddersfield fans.

Although the weather is bound to be a factor for both sets of fans, so far Oxford have sold a whopping 1,367, and it is anticipated they will likely bring a maximum of 1,700 despite a suggestion from Oxford defender David Hunt they would sell out the away area.

Indeed the weather has been so bad that a number of matches were called off on New Years day, and with the Valley pitch recently a concern, there are strong reasons to think the match may not go ahead at all. A pitch inspection tomorrow will determine that likelihood.

Here is todays response from Charlton COO Steve Bradshaw, and we'd like to thank him for taking the time to come back to us swiftly on this:

The club anticipated an overall attendance of 7,500. Therefore, the business case was to provide the best possible service to fans, whilst minimising operating costs against projected income. At the time of writing and with two days until the game is scheduled to take place, home sales are 2200, some 5000+ under the revised capacity. 

The case for closing the East Stand was based on management of operating costs. By closing the stand, we save costs on manning the exit gates in both Harvey Gardens and Lansdowne Mews, plus turnstiles, plus 32 stewards in the stands to cover pitch gates, vomitories etc. as laid down in the club’s Safety Certificate.

When added to this, we will also not open the East stand kitchen, saving staffing costs as all hospitality is switched to the West Stand. We also save on the half-time and post-match cleaning bill, which for the East stand alone is around £1,000. We are also able to close down the East stand first aid room, thus saving on St John’s Ambulance costs. These savings run into thousands of pounds and whilst under the  FA rules some of the costs are split between clubs, not all of the costs are eligible; some costs are borne entirely by CAFC .

The club does have contingency plans in place to open other areas of the stadium should the need arise, but judging by current sales it is highly unlikely these will be required.

In terms of “erosion of the status of the FA Cup”, the club ticketing prices for this cup-tie (£10/£5) have made the game very accessible and it was hoped these prices would encourage more fans to attend the game. This was very clearly the club’s stance in supporting the FA Cup. As a point of reference, the club opened the East stand last season for FA cup third round tie against Huddersfield Town, which was on a Saturday afternoon and despite inexpensive ticket prices, there was a total attendance of 6,657, including away fans. For clarity, we have not based the business case on this season’s mid-week league cup-tie against Oxford; it was based on last season’s  FA Cup tie at The Valley as detailed above.

The Match Day Operation aims to be as efficient as possible, supporting the broader business objectives of the club. Therefore, we have to minimise our costs where possible.

I hope this clarifies the matter appropriately.

Regards

Steve"

TN