Fulham Football Club has started the sales push to flog the posh seats in The Riverside by sending a glossy brochure to potential corporate clients to entice them into the shiny new stand Mr Khan has built.
The Focus Team took to Twitter/X yesterday to look at what was on offer in The Riverside’s lounges and restaurants in what was intended as a tongue-in-cheek way. Some didn’t see it as that, but then that is the internet. You can catch up with the thread here:
We know you’ve all been waiting for your tenterhooks to find out what a @FulhamFC corporate Riverside ticket costs.
Well, here they are, and they are for only the hardest of the hardcore. Prices are pro-rated this season & inc cup games up to 1/4 finals.
Here we go… #FFC 1/9 pic.twitter.com/jdiQbAQcoE
— Fulham Focus (@Fulham_Focus) October 16, 2024
Overall, it is what you would expect from a corporate offering. Having been invited to a few corporate guest events things, I (Boney here, hello!) always enjoy watching what is happening around me. For example, the Corporate Level at The Emirates (that middle tier) is an excellent place to watch the match. Not that many people get out there to watch any of it as they are still finishing their food when the second half kicks-off. Most people at this level are not there to support the team. They are there for a jolly or to hit/celebrate a company target.
For the record, I have no issue with Corporate Hospitality; it is a feature of sports, and having grown up in North America, I know it has just been a matter of time before sports here start to catch up. Granted, my pit access at Silverstone in 1992 and Donnington in 1993 was not the plush F1 experience the fancy set gets today! In the Premier League, the new White Hart Lane has set a standard that all other club owners lust after when it comes to match-day and non-match-day revenues.
The false economy to us fans is clear: standard seat price rises throughout a stadium barely move the revenue needle. But what is interesting about the Fulham brochure is how they are positioning Craven Cottage. The club see The Cottage as a destination that is “one of the most accessible ways to experience Premier League football in London.” If all seats have a “premium” appeal level, then maybe that needle moves a bit more.
Before we get to that, what could The Riverside generate in revenue over the next few years. The prices in the brochure state that you have to buy a minimum of two seasons for your seats and that each subsequent season will see both a 5% price rise and a rise in line with the Customer Price Index (which at the time of writing is 2.6%). If you buy three or move seasons, that 5% bump decreases to 2.5%. I’m sure, if you were buying a large package, Tom Nicklin’s Hospitality Sales Team will do you a deal.
So, let’s pay safe here and say you are buying a pair of tickets for The Riverside. What is that going to set you back for the rest of the 2024/25 season and the entire 2025/26 season? I’ve broken out the spreadsheet and done some hacky maths to get the numbers. As you will be VAT registered, I’m sure, I’ve taken the ex-VAT price for the tickets. Also, according to the brochure, only the Match Day Plus and The Dugout lounges are open. So I’ve pro-rated those two levels from the Brentford home game (15 matches total) and the others, scheduled to open in December, from the Brighton game at the beginning of December (13 matches total).
| Lounge Area | Cost Per Ticket ex vat | Total Number Av | Cost Per Match | 2024/5 Pro Rate | 2025/26 Cost | Pair of Tickets 24-26 | Total Potential Rev 24-26 |
| Match Day Plus | £3,250.00 | 1254 | £171.05 | £2,565.79 | £3,493.75 | £12,119.08 | £7,598,662.50 |
| The Dugout | £4,500.00 | 530 | £236.84 | £3,552.63 | £4,837.50 | £16,780.26 | £4,446,769.74 |
| The Thames Bar Room | £5,250.00 | 170 | £276.32 | £3,592.11 | £5,643.75 | £18,471.71 | £1,570,095.39 |
| The Originals | £6,000.00 | 156 | £315.79 | £4,105.26 | £6,450.00 | £21,110.53 | £1,646,621.05 |
| Sky Deck | £7,750.00 | 465 | £407.89 | £5,302.63 | £8,331.25 | £27,267.76 | £6,339,754.93 |
| The Brasserie | £8,500.00 | 116 | £447.37 | £5,815.79 | £9,137.50 | £29,906.58 | £1,734,581.58 |
| The Gourmet | £10,000.00 | 96 | £526.32 | £6,842.11 | £10,750.00 | £35,184.21 | £1,688,842.11 |
| Total | £25,025,327.30 |
So, the cheapest price you could get for your Match Day Plus experience is £12,119.08 for 34 matches plus the early domestic home cup rounds up to the Quarter-Finals stage.
What is glaring here for those of us who try and fail to get away tickets is that if you splash out on The Dugout level and above (yours from just £16,780.26!), you get priority access to all away game tickets, which is nice for them.
Should Fulham Football Club manage to sell out The Riverside for the rest of this season and next, the club will generate £25,025,327.30. Looking at the potential season revenues, The Riverside could generate £10,148,671.05 in 2024/25 (if all the tickets sell and the place actually opens) and £14,876,656.25 in 2025/26.
So for a potential £14m a year for a full season of match day operations, or a half an Alex Iwobi, that is not an amount of cash to be sniffed at. Granted, that excludes any revenues from non-match day events and supplier costs. Sodexo Live! have signed an 11-year deal to run the food and beverage offering in the Fulham Pier development that The Riverside is the main part of.
Sodexo were the last provider standing in the bidding process as Fulham were expecting the F&B providers to cover the costs of the fit out for the kitchens etc, based on conversations I’ve had with one of the other bidders who withdrew from the process. Sodexo will surely be passing that cost on.
Should this offering be successful, I can see the trend of squeezing the rest of the ground to help bolster the revenue coming into the club, but without the expense of that The Riverside has been.
So there you have it, Mr Khan’s dream for The Riverside is upon us and for those who get to enjoy it, I’m sure it will be delightful. I shall just ruefully utter curses upon The Riverside as I fight my way into the Hammersmith End toilets and wade through whatever that is on the floors.
Maybe the tourist fans will complain and the bogs will get an upgrade next! You never know…
