Sunshine On Leith or Why Do We Do It?

With Hibs already out on the pitch, Dundee United come out for the start of the second half to applause from the United supporters in the South Stand.
Thought I'd go along to see 'my' team in action for the first time in ages. It's been a while since I was at a game, and the days of paying at the turnstiles on your way in have clearly passed. A long queue to buy a ticket and then more queuing to get through a single turnstile into the away end. They did open a second turnstile but the game had already started by the time I and many other United fans got inside. Two people selling the tickets and then two more on the turnstiles - why not have four turnstiles open and taking cash?
Wee celebrity spotting in the queue - saw a face I recognised but couldn't quite place him. It was only when I saw him again inside the United end that I recognised him as the actor that used to play the character Michael Brodie in the TV soap River City. Didn't know he was an Arab but looking him up online he's from Blairgowrie so it's not surprising, and he's in Edinburgh appearing in the Traverse in the play I'm With The Band. Which a friend went to see and said was very poor and at least one review I've seen has been pretty unimpressed.
Hibs seemed a poor team so it was difficult to tell if United were playing well or just being made to look good. Gary Mackay Steven came in for some 'robust' tackles and while there was an early booking for one Hibs defender the referee didn't seem to be interested in adding to it, despite several more fouls. After a few missed opportunities at the far end, when we were starting to wonder if the team would rue the wasted chances, United finally took the lead. And at half-time they were well in control, while the Hibs crowd booed off their team.
The second half was much the same to begin with although the United fans, me included, started to get frustrated with the team as the players seemed unable to finish the game off. David Goodwillie up front looked like a player carried away with his own reputation and not prepared to make the required effort. Too often possession of the ball was given away carelessly. Passing the ball around is all very well, but it needs to be done quickly to drag the other team about and then the ball used swiftly to mount an attack. Lack of basic ball control makes you wonder exactly what the players do all week. And no one seemed interested in making forward runs. I longed for a Paul Sturrock to make runs into space.
Things heated up at the far end as a Hibs player took exception to a United defender's tackle and after the referee had separated them he sent them both off. Which seemed to galvanise Hibs and sent United back into their shell. The three best attacking players were substituted and their replacements added nothing to the team. I don't think any of us in the United end were surprised when Hibs equalised, after the referee awarded a dodgy free-kick to Hibs. And of course it was an ex-United player who got the goal. By now every 50/50 tackle and decision was going the home team's way - with the crowd appearing to prompt the ref to give a foul against United on more than one occasion. So by the end we were hanging on to a share of the points. Against what is still a poor team. The final whistle prompted boos from the United fans and cheers from the Hibs supporters. I guess everything's relative. A first goal and point for Hibs was something to cheer. A doubling of the points tally for United was seen as two points dropped. It's going to be a long season for the United faithful.
Which brings me to the question of value for money. Was it worth my £22 admission? Does football exploit its audience? Clearly I'm a very infrequent attendee at games and the pricing probably works better for those who commit to a season ticket. But it's still relatively expensive for an uncertain product. Much of the afternoon was spent frustrated at a team that failed to do things properly - like actors forgetting their lines and calling for a prompt.
The argument is that seating needs to be more expensive, but there is no option to stand these days. And no cheaper seats to choose to sit in as one price fits all. We were all in the lower tier of the away stand, but what if it had been full and I'd ended up sitting right at the back of the upper tier. Would that really have been worth the same as a decent seat much lower down? I think some teams have started to experiment with variable ticket prices, which includes a nominal 'base price' that is attributed to different games according to the likely level of demand. In the case of Hibs, a Tuesday night game against Ross County is going to have a much smaller attendance than an Edinburgh derby against Hearts and therefore priced accordingly. And as the team rises up the league and the games become more significant the price rises further. The question is whether there is sufficient elasticity of price to effect demand. How low would ticket prices have to get to see a noticeable increase in attendances? I suspect football fans are exploited - there is an effective monopoly at play if you want to support 'your' team, even if there are plenty of other teams out there.
As for me, even if the £22 was a little steep for the entertainment on offer today, there is also an element of the entrance money that pays for my ongoing 'belonging' to the team. Topping up my allegiance that gives more credibility to the passive support of looking for the team's results in the paper or watching matches on TV in the weeks and months ahead.

And I discovered that I blipped another blipper in this shot - idlersdream - third from the right!